China donates K18m towards Malawi Investment Forum

The People’s Republic of China has donated over K18 million to the Malawi Government through Ministry of Trade and Industry for the Malawi Investment Forum (MIF) which will take place on 29 – 30 June, 2015.

The donation was presented on Tuesday at the ministry’s headquarters in Lilongwe during the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on support towards the MIF between Chinese Embassy and the ministry.

Minister responsible, Joseph Mwanamveka said they are expecting over 300 delegates from all over the world to attend the event as it is the first ever international event to be hosted in the country.

“As you would expect, hosting such an international event, there is need for an enormous amount of resources. Realizing the challenges that we are facing, we deployed an appeal for support to our development partners, Head of Missions and the private sector,” said Mwanamveka.

He said the Chinese business community through the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China responded positively to the government’s appeal.

Mwanamveka therefore thanked Huawei Technology Corporation, Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group, Shanghai Construction Group, the Fifth Bureau Corporation of China Railway, China Jiangxi Corporation for International Economic and Technical Cooperation, China-Africa Cotton Malawi Limited, ZTE Corporation and Hualong Construction (pvt) Limited for making available K18 million that will cover event management expenses.

He also thanked the Chinese Government for the support that it has rendered to Malawi since the onset of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

“I am sure that the friendly relations that exist will continue for the mutual benefit of both countries and the realization of hopes and aspirations of our people,” he said.

Mwanamveka therefore, appealed to the media to extensively publicise the event so that the ministry achieve the best possible attendance by both local and international investors.

Chinese Ambassador Zhang Qingyang said the support from China shows the friendship between the two countries and that the embassy would also encourage Chinese companies from home and other countries to attend the forum to enhance the influence of MIF and strengthen the exchanges and cooperation between companies of two countries.

“It is well-known that one of the secret of the rapid development of the economy of China is adopting the ‘open to the outside world’ policy, which introducing foreign investment, technology and managing experience to develop ourselves,” said Zhang.

He said the development of Malawi also needs to introduce foreign investment; the MIF is a very good start.

According to Zhang the China-Malawi relations have entered the phase of upgrading and gearing up and are faced with an important development opportunity and that the Chinese government attaches great importance to the bilateral relations.

“We are willing to work closely with the Malawian government to enhance the bilateral relations to a higher level, strengthen economic cooperation and people to people exchanges and bring more benefits to the two countries,” he said.

The event will take place at Bingu International Conference Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

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