By Dumbani Mzale, contributor, in New York, USA:
President Lazarus Chakwera has told potential investors in the United States of America (USA) that Malawi is a good investment destination.
He cited competitive investors’ tax and non-tax incentives, daily flights, economic growth and peace among incentives it was offering.
Chakwera said this on Sunday evening in New York during the second edition of the Malawi-Partners Conference.
It was held on the margins of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (Unga).
Addressing investors, Chakwera said Malawi boasts of 5.3 million hectares of arable land, representing 45 percent of its total land area.
He added that the country had abundant water resources, including Lake Malawi, Africa’s third-largest freshwater lake, coupled with several major river systems.
The First Citizen also told would-be investors that Malawi had access to a market of over 100 million people in the Southern African Development Community and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa regions.
“Malawi is not only a land of opportunities, but also a nation ready to meet the global demand for high quality products. We have a web of rivers and lakes, and arable land that is fit-for-purpose and ready to be spurred into high-value agricultural production zones,” Chakwera said.
The President said Malawi had also recently developed a one-stop service centre for investment and trade promotion through Malawi Investment and Trade Centre, adding that Malawi had a large, highly educated, skilled, hardworking and trainable workforce.
Speaking separately, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, who attended the conference, echoed his counterpart’s sentiments by assuring potential investors that Malawi was endowed with natural resources which, he said, were conducive for investment.
He said just like in Malawi, agriculture also plays a critical role in Mozambique and Africa as a whole, in terms of providing a primary source of livelihood income to the majority of the population.
The first edition of the Malawi-Partners Conference was held at the same venue and some of the fruits of the conference included the ongoing construction of Magwero Industrial Park near Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, whose resources were committed by Afreximbank at that time.
Other commitments from last year’s conference that have materialised include the World Bank-financed Regional Climate Resilience Programme, Ifad-funded Sustainable Agriculture Productivity Programme and the Building Education Foundation Project that the Global Partnership for Education is financing.
The 2024 edition of Malawi- Partners Conference was held under the theme ‘Securing Our Future: Enhancing Investment in Agriculture for Sustainable Food Security’.
