By Kingsley Jassi:
In what promises to be the next biggest investment in tourism, Sunbird Hotels Limited plans to construct a high rise apartment hotel next to the company’s outfit at the heart of the capital city in Lilongwe.
The company pitched the $90 million investment proposal at the just-ended Malawi-European Union (EU) investment forum in search of a strategic partnership to implement the project, which will also have the first high rise shopping mall.
Another company, Rayoni Tourism Group, presented its project in Mzuzu, where it wants to develop a four-star hotel with an international conference centre.
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It says it seeks to open up the northern part to tourism, eyeing tourists that flock to Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
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Project promoter Anthony Mukungwa said they had registered a local airline to connect Mzuzu with the other cities and tourist sites such as Likoma and Nyika.
He said they have also signed strategic partnerships with several world-class airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines and some air charter companies to provide reliable air links and promote the northern region as a tourist destination centre.
“The convention centre will be managed by Radison Hotels Group as part of the over 3,000 hotels it manages worldwide,” Mukungwa said in a presentation.
He added that the land for the shopping mall and golf course had been allocated by Mzuzu City Council.
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However, there is a need for compensation to settlers, a process that is being handled by Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (MITC).
The two companies were the major local companies that presented projects, saying feasibility studies were already conducted as Sunbird said they were at the stage of architectural works.
In the presentation, Sunbird further said the 150-room facility was under architectural drawing but hinted that it would change the skyline of the capital city as the facility would also include a 500-seater conference facility.
The company was one of the local private sector entities that attempted to lure European investors to put their money in their proposed investments, a platform that was provided by the EU through its Global Gateway Initiative.
The initiative seeks to accelerate investment flow from the EU to Malawi
The publicly-listed company, which is largely owned by the government with 75 percent, also plans to develop a $35 million to $50 million five-star hotel and conference facilities in Mangochi, next to Sunbird Nkopola, as it seeks to expand its footprint in the country.
The project will have a wide range of leisure facilities that include water sports, casino, promising to provide an exclusive package of lakeshore experience to local and foreign tourists.
The Ministry of Tourism also took the stage to sell State-promoted projects that include the Golden Sand tourism facility project in Mangochi, Salima integrated tourism project and other projects in the top 10 priority projects from the list of over 100 that are in the tourism master plan.
Speaking at the closing of the event, Tourism Minister Vera Kamtukule was optimistic that the event had generated investment interests from European companies, saying the country needed such investments to turn around the ailing economy.
“It is such investments that will make the country deal with the prevailing economic challenges and have a stable growth that will take us to the Malawi 2063 aspirations,” Kamtukule said.
About 60 companies from Europe took part in the two-day investment forum that was extended to tours of successful investment projects in the country.
