Malawi leader Mutharika, senior US envoy hold talks in trade and investment.
President Peter Mutharika on Thursday discussed with an American envoy on how Malawi would enhance trade and investment with the American government.
Mutharika met the visiting United States of America’s Assistant Secretary of State Responsible for Southern Africa, Mathew Harrington at the New State House in Lilongwe.
In his welcome remarks, Mutharika said his government was focusing on creating wealth for the benefit of Malawians by focusing on exports as opposed to imports.
The Malawi leader said to achieve that dream, his government has put in place several measures that are aimed at empowering the people with skills that can enhance trade and investment.
“We would like to empower the people through education and skills development. To that effect we have built 28 community technical colleges in all districts in Malawi and we are hopeful that we will have a community college in each of the 193 constituencies in the next five years to empower the people with various vocational skills they can use to improve their lives among others,” he said.
Mutharika also thanked the U.S government for funding the construction of 250 secondary schools in the country which he said would improve access to secondary school education for many primary school learners.
The president also expressed gratitude to the U.S government for the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) for improving power transmission in the country and said he was hopeful that the second phase would improve access to power in the rural areas and facilitate development.
The president has also assured investors that Malawi is a peaceful country and that their investments would be secured.
On his part Harrington told the media after his discussions with the president that he was pleased that the president is focusing on trade and investment as opposed to aid which is in line with new US policy on its partnership with Africa.
He also hailed the strong relations between Malawi and the US and that he was looking forward to appreciating firsthand the great job that US Embassy team was doing in Malawi.
Harrington then asked all parties to presidential election case whose judgment will be delivered on Monday to respect the constitutional court ruling.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francis Kasaila said he was pleased that Malawi is among the four countries Harrington is visiting which signifies the confidence the US government has in Malawi as a country.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
Please tell the American we don’t want another Washington Consensus. We don’t want our natural resources to be bought for a song through forced devaluations. Many people in the country don’t know that the Kwacha was at one time stronger than the mighty Dollar and that we are where we are now because of dictated policies.