Dependence on donor funding, misalignment to the Malawi 2063 and low quality and unaggregated products are frustrating efforts on implementation aspirations in the National Export Strategy II, commentators have said.
Malawi launched the strategy in December 2021 to run through to 2026 to, among other things, make the country a competitive, compliant, diversified and sustainable sourcing destination for goods and services for the regional and global marketplace.
It aims at increasing exports as a percentage of GDP from 14.6 percent to 20 percent.
The strategy also aims to unlock Malawi’s full export potential and to contribute towards achieving aspirations in Malawi 2063.
But in an interview, Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) President Betchani Tchereni said one major challenge for the country remains failure to implement policy prescriptions.
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“We are not holding anyone responsible for the failure,” Tchereni said.
Logistics expert who is also chief executive officer for Fortress Business and Logistics Consult, Karl Chokotho, attributed low output to failure to have a focused production base.
“Production costs can be managed in different ways such as creating economies of scale. We have the land, human resource and equipment possible to make this happen.
“Logistics costs can be managed in many different ways in order to lower them. Deliberate measures can be put in place to create lower costs,” he said.
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Malawi Investment and Trade Centre Chief Executive Officer Paul Kwengwere, however, said the programme is on track.
He was quick to say the impact of NES II implementation is likely going to be experienced towards the end of the implementation period.
“We have strengthened our bilateral relationships with neighbouring countries and other countries in the region including the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) window which, we hope, will increase exports of our products in the next two years.
“We have also made strides in penetrating non-traditional markets such as China where a lot of Malawian companies have been certified to export non-traditional exports such as soybeans, macadamia nuts, groundnuts and chillies. This is in line with strategic goal number one of NES II.
According to Kwengwere, Malawi’s total export trade in value increased from $880 million in 2018 to $1.019 billion, which is in line with NES II goal of reaching an increase in exports to $1.5 billion by 2026.
