Muluzi visits UK Westminster: Talks on Visas, appeals for Malawi support

Malawi’s Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, Atupele Muluzi, has been in UK last week on official business and visited Westminster at the House of Commons and House of Lords to lobby and mobilise support for Malawi, particularly for the energy sector.

Muluzi outside DFID offices in London.-Photo by Thom Chiumia, Nyasa Times
Muluzi outside DFID offices in London.-Photo by Thom Chiumia, Nyasa Times

Speaking in interview with Nyasa Times from London, the minister described his tour as “extremely successful”.

Westminster

During his visit to Westminster where he met parliamentary committee on Malawi desk as well as holding discussions with Lord Steel and Lord McConnel, Muluzi spoke of cementing development partnerships founded on mutual respect, saying the Malawi/Scotland Partnership is a very good model and has delivered on tangible results including in areas like health and education.

He also spoke about the importance of twinning developed and developing countries based on mutual respect, benefits and development.

Muluzi welcomed his focus on unlocking some barriers including reviewing the current UK visa application system which he has argued is “problematic” especially for the Malawian private sector to engage with their counterparts.

However, at the same time, he stated that he understood efforts to ensure there is “credibility in the system” but said this must be balanced with efforts to make the system “fit for purpose.”

Delivery

According to Muluzi, Malawi’s vision is that the southern African country would like to move from a predominantly producing to an exporting country.

He mentioned that under the leadership of President Arthur Peter Mutharika that vision is being achieved in that leadership is very much about delivery.

The minister illustrated the things that he intends to deliver in his ministry in particular the doubling the energy generation capacity in the next five years and increasing access to electricity from 9% to at least 30% in the next 10-15 years.

He appealed for support in the area and informed the British government that Malawi’s sole electricity provider Escom lost 35 percent of its power after shutting down two of its five power stations located on Shire River following the floods.

The floods left a high volume of trash, silt and huge logs which have choked the water entry points of the machines, causing massive power outages across Malawi.

Mining

Muluzi also said his ministry intends to grow the mining sector in “an environmentally sustainable way” to at least contribute more than 20% of GDP,

Mining used to cater for a meagre 3% to Malawi’s Gross Domestic Product but the contribution leap-frogged to 10% of GDP when the Kayelekera uranium Mine of Paladin went on stream.

Muluzi highlighted that his ministry is actually one of the key engines for growth but also mentioned that changing shift from rhetoric to delivery and results will take time.

“This is why grooming a robust generation of leaders will be important,” pointed out Muluzi.

He sought more partnerships and exchange of ideas on how to do this with the UK.

The Malawi Government is pursuing the reforms in the minerals sector under the auspices of the Mining Governance and Growth Support Project, which is being financed by the World Bank’s International Development Association and the European Union.

The activities under the project include institutional and governance strengthening, long and short term capacity building, updating of the geological data base, acquisition of high density airborne geophysical data, updating geological maps, modernising the mineral cadastre and setting up a geo-data centre for ease of data access.

Cashgate

During the meetings which he was accompanied by Malawi High Commissioner, Benard Sande, issues of  massive corruption scandal the cashgate was also tackled and Muluzi acknowledge that this is “a very serious problem” and flagged efforts being done to address it.

He said cashgate exposed the weaknesses in accountability and transparency systems and institutions require support urgently through twinning, mentoring and learning from others.

“W e take responsibility for wanting to change or reform systems and we are keen to be held accountable for this,” said Muluzi.

He said focus should be on building capacity of government but as a means to an end which is improved service delivery.

Other meeting Muluzi had were with DFID and investors in energy sector.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!

Follow us in Twitter
31 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
musisipala
9 years ago

Keep on driving for the good if the Nation. You are not servind DPP but the whole nation. A nsanjewo asiyeni azilila. Thandiza ziko lako mwanawem

zaoneka sizi
zaoneka sizi
9 years ago

visa appeal anthu tupita ndi madzi. dyela mwanawe. supitilila ku US kukaona ma self exiled aja, mako akatokubereka uja– miano kokhwa
olo mulankhula ku nyumba ya malamulo uko ku UK angokusekanipo cifukwa za Malawi akuzidziwa kale mbili yanu. kosapeneka mukakamba za Eskom angoti these daft people. ndalama zose amakupatsani zija munaziika kuti pano magetsi mutalongosola kale kale. mbili ya ya magetsi njakalekale zoti munaocha ofesi ya Eskom azungu atoiziwa, when will you learn what the word WEAN mean??????????? simucedwa kuiwaladi eti. one dvice! mzungu ukangomunamiza basitu amakuthothola ngati nthata.
tatiyeni nazo

zaoneka sizi
zaoneka sizi
9 years ago

no 22 ndi 27 mau.
mmesa ku mangoci kuno tilli mmavuto a ma fladi inu muli kokadzinonenetsa. koma sindimakuvetsani anthu inu,apa mukanangobwerera kukaona anthu anu izi za cashgate mining zisiyeni kaye yambani mwaona za crisis zi k
zinazi pambuyo. nzeru palibetu apa.

Dambudzo Mwasanya
Dambudzo Mwasanya
9 years ago

President wa Imraan Sadick ameneyo.He gets paid for writing trash on this forum.The crooked father is trying means and ways for his son to lead this country but this will never happen in Malawi.The Youngman has no direction just like his father.He loves illgotten riches from politics.He has abandoned his fathers party claiming to be working with the govt of the day.No any Muluzi will lead this country again.

Chenkumbi
Chenkumbi
9 years ago

Jumbo,
Interconnection project with Mozambique was to ripe Malawi 100 million dollars a month> Is that Economical from your prospective thinking? If you were the president would you sign that deal? Your answers to this question will show us your thinking capacity.

kwabaniso
kwabaniso
9 years ago

Ung’ono ung’ono ndi patali 2019 Boma!!!!!

tozer tsono
tozer tsono
9 years ago

Cashgate did not expose weaknesses in accountability and transparency systems. The weakness already existed in the governance and greed ways of UDF, DPP and PP. Your own father is still answering a corruption case that started way before the so called cashgate. The party you are working for, DPP, is under investigation for stifling an audit on the unaccounted for, billions of missing dollars. The auditor general in Malawi queried the DPP on the missing money but DPP decided to thwart the investigation. DPP has been invited by this writer and many others, to expose the culprits outright but the… Read more »

Imraan Sadick
9 years ago

Top class is understatement rather
Upper Class
Atupele Woyeeeeee!

kd
kd
9 years ago

apatu zikuoneka kuti APM trust atupele ….. sovani

Jumbo
Jumbo
9 years ago

What has happened to the coal fired Power Station which was to be built by a Chinese company? It was to give us an alternative source of power, how about the interconnection project with Mozambique?

Read previous post:
Kaliati says SDA pastor facing sex offence didn’t deserve bail

Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati has protested against the bail given to Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Pastor Harrison...

Close