President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has disclosed that his administration has been reviewing policy, legislative, and administrative framework to make the changes necessary for creating an environment for boosting production in agriculture, tourism and mining.
Chakwera made the remarks when he opened the second Malawi Investment Forum, which took place at the Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe on Tuesday.
The Malawi leader stated that governance dysfunctions in the public institutions and external shocks that assault the country’s economy as being major obstacles to his government’s efforts to create conditions for a producing, exporting, and forex generating economy.
“For decades, we have had public institutions that are meant to regulate sectors of our economy but that do not do so efficiently, either because of corruption, or because of slowness in execution, or because of incompetence, or because of resource constraints, or because of political sabotage, or because of petty fights by institutional leaders with fragile egos. The institutional dysfunctions that emanate from these toxic elements often leave many sectors of our economy too disorganized, too neglected, too unregulated, and too exposed to exploitation to attract meaningful investments or to unleash their potential,” he said.
President Chakwera said it is for this reason that two of the economic enablers spelt out in Malawi 2063 are building effective governance institutions and systems, and enhancing public sector performance.
He said his administration’s present posture is to intensify the level of accountability for heads of governance institutions, streamline systems that are needlessly long, tedious, and redundant, and exacting uncompromising and unapologetic consequences for public service deliverers whose performance is woefully poor.
“It is my commitment, therefore, to continue on this path of clearing all the bureaucratic roadblocks in the public sector that delay and derail private sector progress. This is also the reason why I established a Presidential Delivery Unit in my office to identify bottlenecks in the public sector that get in the way of results and outcomes, as well as the Presidential Private Sector Council to advise me directly about elements of the public sector that discourage business and industry,” he narrated.
He revealed that he has recently been sending ministers to South Africa to address potential investors there at the Malawi Investment Forum, which Malawi’s embassy is hosting there.
President Chakwera further stated that it diplomatic diplomacy is the policy of the Malawi Government wherever and when government officials travel outside the country.
‘Our number one priority is the economy and that necessarily means empowering and enabling the private sector, with the goal of making Malawi the best partner for business and investment. Toward that end, I invite you to speak freely and openly, and I thank the Economist and all the sponsors of this event for seeing that Malawi is the best place for this agenda,” he said.
