Mutharika says donor age is now gone: ‘Malawi economic growth slows’

President Peter Mutharika says Malawians should accept that donors have pulled their aid from the country and they will not be returning back.

Mutharika said this Friday when he opened the 46th session of parliament in Lilongwe.

“The age of donor aid seems ro be gone. Our developong partners remain with us only wit support outside the budget,” said Mutharika in his 25 minute historic address.

He said more than ever, the nation needs economic prudence and innovation in the wake of donor pull out and the current economic crisis.

“Malawians must understand the changing times we live in. We must work to endure our painful path to economic sovereignity,” he said.

He said this was the time for all Malawians to unite and condemned political bickering and finger pointing.

“Sadly our democracy seems to have taken our national duty and sense of responsibility. Our freedom of speech has become a celebration of blaming and counter blaming one anorher. We are wasting precious time failing to develop Malawi now. History will never forgive us,” Mutharika said.

On the economy, Mutharika said projections have been revised downwards to the growth of 3 percent in 2015 and 4.5 percent in 2016, adding the kwacha depreciated by 30 percent.

The President said it was sad that Malawians continue to struggle to survive, saying the hard times should teach Malawians hard lessons.

“The rougher the times, the tougher we must be. And we can turm our challenges into stepping stone for building a resilient economy. Malawi is at a very critical stage,” Mutharika said.

Mutharika recognises insecurity concerns but says statistics indicate crime is on the decrease.

The President also said Issuance of National ID cards to all citizens will be rolled out in 2017.

“Go vernment has commenced process of issuing National IDs. We intend to issue first 5,000 IDs by February 2016 on a pilot basis,” said Mutharika.

Mutharika further declares an end to theft of drugs in public hospitals due to new measures tackling the malpractice.