The National Planning Commission (NPC) Thursday told the Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance that failure to align the budget with the pillars of the Malawi 2063 (MW2063) first 10-Year Implementation Plan (MIP-1) is delaying the possibility of meeting the goals.
MIP-1 focuses more on promoting productive sectors such as commercialised agriculture, manufacturing, mining beneficiation, tourism and their enabling infrastructure such as information and communication technology.
Speaking after appearing before the committee in Lilongwe yesterday, NPC Director-General Thomas Munthali said to raise the country’s status to at least middle-income level, there is need for the national budget to focus more on wealth creation ventures.
He said this is a third year running below the MIP-1 required average of six percent.
“This calls for a fast reorienting of budgeting to ensure it is in line with MIP- 1. MIP-1 interventions were modelled as the best option to graduate Malawi to middle-income economy by 2030.
“Investment in large-scale mining, mega farms, agro-processing, manufacturing and tourism should be prioritised along with creation of an enabling environment,” Munthali said.
Member of Parliament for Mangochi Monkey Bay, Ralph Jooma, who chaired the meeting, regretted that the budget has such gaps.
Jooma admitted that for the past three years, Malawi has not been consistent in the implementation of MIP-1.
“It is the responsibility of our committee to see to it that the budget is in line with MIP-1. But, going by what NPC has told the committee, we are still lagging behind. As a nation, we need to up our game for [MW2063] not to end up like Vision 2020,” Jooma said.
MW2062 aims to transform Malawi into a wealthy and self-reliant industrialised upper middle-income country by the year 2063.
MIP-1, to run from 2021 to 2030, replaces the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy III as the country’s new medium-term development plan.
It is aimed at helping the country graduate into a middle-income economy and achieve most of the Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030.
On concerns raised by NPC regarding the budget’s failure to align with MIP-1, economist Betchani Tchereni said the realisation of MW2063 requires financing.
Tchereni said this financing is in the creation of an enabling environment and also the participation of government in industrialisation and huge infrastructure development.
“However, the budget for the past years has been making attempts to finance some line items in the vision and MIP-1. It is, however, imperative for government to make the resources available,” Tchereni said.
Meanwhile, NPC has called for the need to hold one another accountable for MW2063 to be achieved.
Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe had not responded to questions we sent him on the concerns raised, by the time we went to press.
