Malawi has over the years embarked on a journey to woo investors to invest in various sectors of the economy.
Over the years, the country has hosted a number of Malawi investment foras as well as investment summits. On Monday night, President Lazarus Chakwera, who is in New York, United States of America for 78th United Nations General Assembly (Unga), hosted another forum with a similar agenda of wooing investors. Dubbed the Invest in Malawi Forum, the indaba attracted investors from agriculture, mining, cyber security, tourism and industrialisation.
But must investors come to Malawi?
Briefing the potential investors, Chakwera began by saying that Malawi is poised to become the most hotly contested destination for foreign direct investment in Southern Africa.
The Malawi leader said, for years, Malawi has been known for its potential in sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and mining, but that it is really in the past few years that the country has intentionally taken steps to light up the necessary runways for receiving unprecedented levels of investment in the next few years.
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He told global business captains that by coming to the indaba, they have positioned themselves to get a head-start on this exciting race for a stake in Malawi’s inevitable prosperity.
“If you go to Malawi today, you will find that the whole place is a construction site of various road and rail infrastructural projects, because these are going to be crucial in the movement of people and goods in and out of Malawi during the investment revolution that is coming.
“If you go to Malawi today, you will find that we are implementing various energy projects to triple our electricity generation capacity in the next few years, because this will power the industrialisation and digitisation revolution, we are preparing Malawi for going forward,” Chakwera said.
What investment opportunities are there in Malawi?
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Listening to Chakwera speaking at the forum, there are opportunities in the agriculture sector through the mega-farms initiative that Malawi is developing across the country.
“There are opportunities in the health sector and in the water sector as we seek to improve the wellbeing of our people. There are opportunities in the education sector as we seek to develop educational institutions and systems that build our people’s capacity to take their place in a digital future.
“There are opportunities in the mining sector, as Malawi is home to untapped minerals that will power digital transformation, including the recent discovery of the largest deposits of rutile found anywhere in the world,” he said.
The Malawi leader added that opportunities in the transport sector are also in abundance in Malawi as the country seeks to create a regional hub with the development of a new international airport in the Capital City.
“There are opportunities in tourism, as Malawi is regularly ranked amongst the top 10 naturally beautiful places to visit in Africa, not to say anything of the fact that Malawi is one of the most peaceful places on earth and one of the most just, if Malawi’s world acclaim for having the best and most judicious courts in the region are anything to go by,” Chakwera said.
But how conducive is the investment environment?
Investors do not like a hostile investment environment. That is to say, countries must put in place the right mix of legal and regulatory instruments to ease investment.
For example, counties must make it as easily as possible to start a business in their jurisdictions. Issues of closing a business also come into consideration.
Investors also look at systems put in place to resolve conflicts whenever they arise.
According to Chakwera, Malawi has a specialised Commercial Court Registry to settle disputes, and that the country is setting Malawi up to be a centre for international arbitration.
He observed that Malawi is also a member of the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
“These are all legal instruments we have put in place to guarantee the safety and security of your investment. And for those of you that require specific guarantees, we have signed an agreement with the United States Development Finance Corporation for provision of guarantees to US investors interested in investing in Malawi.
“I am also inviting you to invest in Malawi because the country has a competitive business environment. Malawi has constantly and consistently implemented business reforms across all sectors aimed at reducing the cost, time and procedures for doing business,” Chakwera said.
But where is the market if people invest in Malawi?
According to Chakwera, investing in Malawi provides the investors with access to more markets than just Malawi itself.
He said there are regional and continental markets such as the African market through the Southern African Development Community, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), and the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“In order to reduce the cost and time of trading across borders, we are constructing One-Stop Border Posts with our neighbouring countries namely Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique. Malawi is a land of opportunities.
“The Malawi Investment and Trade Centre, our One-Stop Service Centre, is here to share specific opportunities for you to explore and exploit. You can also work with Prosper Africa who have assisted many US businesses to invest in Africa and has actually organised a business mission to Malawi next month, where it intends to scaleup US businesses’ operations in Malawi,” Chakwera said.
Notable firms that attended
Some of the notable firms that attended the Invest in Malawi Forum include Vermeer Corporation which is a leading manufacturer of industrial and agricultural equipment, Headquartered in Pella, Iowa, U.S.
Vermeer employs team members around the world, with regional offices in the Netherlands, Brazil and Singapore; additional manufacturing facilities in South Carolina, Florida and South Dakota in the United States, as well as the Netherlands and Tianjin, China; and more than 600 dealers located around the world.
Also represented at the forum was the Pula Group International.
Pula Group is a US-based company, with its primary operations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company which is interested in mining, has offices in Los Angeles, California, Johannesburg, South Africa and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Another notable firm is Cybastion which provides cybersecurity and digital solutions that protect IT infrastructure and anticipate cyber threats, with educational program offerings.
When are they coming to Malawi?
According to Minister of Trade Simplex Chithyola Banda, the investors are expected in Malawi next month.
“They are coming to Malawi mid-October where they are, looking for partnerships with local counterparts,” Chithyola Banda said.
