JB attends World Economic Summit in UAE: Shares her vision for Malawi
Malawi President oyce Banda was on Monday, November 18, 2013 attended the World Economic Forum’s Summit on the Global Development Agenda in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
This is the world’s largest brainstorming event, which brings together the most relevant thought leaders of the WEF’s Network of Global Agenda Councils.
The Councils, which comprise of 86 groups of experts from academia, business, civil society, international organizations and government, work to advance knowledge and collaboratively explore important issues shaping global, industry and regional agendas.
The President was accompanied at the Summit by the Minister of Economic Planning and Development, Ralph Jooma and Minister of Industry and Trade, Sosten Gwengwe, among other officials.
President Banda is a member of the Global Agenda Council on Poverty and Sustainable Development.
At the Summit, she shared her vision for Malawi, which is to eradicate poverty of the people at both household and national levels through economic growth and wealth creation.
Said the President: “In this regard, my Government through the Economic Recovery Plan prioritised five sectors: agriculture, tourism, energy, mining and infrastructure. In our fight against poverty, I want more income at the household level. This income based approach is important because with increased Incomes we can permanently uplift our country out of poverty and that increased incomes can provide food, enhance access to better education, healthcare and security”.
The Head of State also shared her resolve for women empowerment, observing women need occupy their rightful place as integral players in the fight against the intolerable burden of poverty and underdevelopment.
“My desire is to keep the girl-child in school; my resolve is that women should not die while giving birth for lack of adequate antenatal care and facilities; and my dream is that our youths are empowered to become true drivers of social and economic development of our country.”
The President, however, observed that as a developing nation, Malawi faces enormous challenges in her quest to achieve sustainable social and economic growth. She urged the ‘developed world’ to partner with the developing countries “in the true sense” in order to tackle the difficult global problems, including poverty, underdevelopment, war and disease.
