By Kingsley Jassi:
The Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade, Business and Tourism has said it is working tooth and nail to build multifaceted industrial capacity.
Principal Secretary for Industrialisation, Trade, Business and Tourism Wiskes Nkombezi said the country faced challenges in making export products have competitiveness on the market—given numerous cost drivers under the economic environment.
He said the development of industrial parks, capacity building on product certification and policy clean-up initiatives would enable the country to build such a competitive edge.
He disclosed the acceleration of the on-going Special Economic Zones (SEZ) programme as the driver of the industrialisation agenda of the government and that there is a hunt for more private sector partners to join in the industrial parks project.
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With the Chigumula Industrial Park project at 75 percent completion rate, he said attention was shifting towards the long-awaited Magwero Industrial Park in Lilongwe.
“We are looking for more private sector partners on that project and the government has been doing preparatory works. Very soon, you will see things happening at Magwero,” Nkombezi said.
The $600 million project would have opened the first factory shells by now but preparations have met a series of hurdles that have slowed down progress, even after clearing the land access when the project implementer, Arise SP, was given access.
The project is being supported by Afreximbank in partnership with Export Development Fund and local banks and will host industries in agriculture, manufacturing, mining refinery and pharmaceuticals, among others, and is expected to attract over $600 million in export proceeds when completed.
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While SEZ are being established, the government is pushing to sign agreements with different countries to have mutual recognition of product certification, with Zambia coming on board in the next two weeks before other countries such as Kenya can follow suit, according to Nkombezi.
“This will build confidence in our products when they hit the export market because our certification will be accepted in the countries that we will sign the agreements with,” Nkombezi said.
Meanwhile, the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) has said it has been investing heavily in having more certification scopes while ensuring that it earns global confidence in its certification to ensure that Malawian products are accepted globally.
MBS Director General Symon Mandala said in Lilongwe on the sidelines of product certificates issuance to firms that work was ongoing to have a third party that would accredit the institution to ensure international recognition.
