Mutharika lures London investors: ‘Malawi fast becoming an investment haven for southern Africa’
President Peter Mutharika enticed potential investors in London when he assured the security of their investments and a huge market in Malawi despite its small size.
He said during the meeting with members of UK Royal African Society.
“Of course Malawi has a relatively small population of 17 Million people, but it is part of the larger market through the [Africa] Free Trade Area (FTA), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Agoa ,” the Malawi leader said.
He assured investors that government will provide security for their investment, stressing that they should not fear to invest their money in the country.
“ In Malawi, you will be safe at home, at your work place and in between,” he further assured.
Earlier, Director of Royal African Society, Dr Nicholas Westcott CMG told Malawian journalists that Malawi as a country has opportunities in agriculture and other sectors which would put the country to a higher level of development.
Mutharika stressed that Malawi is at a “turning point” moving from aid to trade.
He said government is set to provide security of investors, life and property.
The President said Malawi is open for business and has set the stage to make investors secure and worth their time by, among other things, establishing a one- stop service centre at Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (Mitc) in Lilongwe to speed up investment process.
The reason why Malawians are not seeng results from these so called “Investment Tours” is that the assertions that Malawi is open for business (and that it is an investment haven), are all wrong. Foreign investors are very very smart people who’d not put their hard earned funds into a country with questionable policies, is infested with high levels of corruption, has unstable energy supply, has high levels of and uncontrollable crime, has no technical skills, has unprogressive tax regime with no meaningful tax or investment incentives and lastly, no tangible consumer base. His Excellency Prof Peter Mutharika, please just visit any of the FDI-hungry countries like South Africa, Botswana, Mauritius, Nigeria and learn from what they have done and still doing, to woo foreign investors. That Malawi is lagging behind in basic investment driver, is a total understatement. Konzani ka pansi kuti ka m’mwamba katsike. Your Ministers of Trade & Industry and Foreign Affairs are both letting you down. I would urge you to urgently put together a high powered team (made up five experts from private and public sectors), to drive private and public sector investment initiatives. This team should start with creating an enabling investment environment in Malawi, before running to woo foreign investors. Let them learn from our neighbours and more; let them put on the table revolutionary and innovative concepts to create enabling environment to attract FDI into Malawi. Unless you are smart in your approach bwana, Malawi will be going backwards economically and therefore socially too. Start using the very few smart people you have in the country to achieve more for Malawi. These are the times you shouldn’t be partisan. You are a Malawian in Malawi.
You are absolutely right. Investors look at indices i.e doing busines index, TI, etc
Heard that before with nothing to show for!