In a quest to familiarise local traders with export processes, the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (MITC) on Thursday trained local businesses in Blantyre on e-commerce and exposed them to export opportunities.
MITC Board Member Harrison Mandindi said the government acknowledges that the private sector in Malawi faces several challenges when attempting to enter international markets due to the complexity of the processes involved.
He said the challenges often arise from lack of knowledge on foreign markets and how to penetrate them, as well as the lack of adequate information on international trade rules and regulations.
“This [the workshop] is precisely meant to address some of these challenges by demystifying export procedures and documentation as well as by unveiling some of the logistical solutions available to the business community,” Mandindi said.
The workshop was organised in collaboration with GIZ and logistical companies including DHL International Malawi Limited.
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DHL Managing Director Victor Sitima said, as a partner of MITC and GIZ, the firm has come up with reasonable logistics cost to local exporters.
One of the participants Maggie Chimpukutso of Food Hub Limited lauded MITC for the initiative.
“The majority of traders in Malawi fail to compete on the international market because of issues of quality of products. This is because the local industry sector has remained undeveloped for a long time and therefore the government must come in to assist,” Chimpukutso said.
