Since he arrived in Washington DC for the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit, President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has made known his intention to strengthen bilateral ties between Malawi and the United States within the context of African Union development matrix.
In his address at the summit, the Malawi leader called for a strong partnership between Malawi and the United States of America to develop the country’s economy.
President Chakwera said his government was diversifying the economy to transform Malawi into an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant economy but needed support to achieve this.
“A partnership between Malawi and the United States in agriculture, tourism, and mining, akin to the partnership we have had in energy and road infrastructure through two multi-million dollar Millennium Challenge Compacts, can radically transform Malawi into the inclusively wealthy and self-reliant nation.
“We envision for ourselves, a nation whose wealth we refuse to lose through illicit financial flows by foreign plunderers or through the corrupt acts of domestic ones,” said Dr Chakwera.
The President also told the summit his government was diversifying the economy to achieve desirable results.
“We are not putting our eggs in one basket, because Malawi’s potential for becoming a diversified economy is too great to be wasted. That is why in tourism, we have just announced plans to soon waive visa requirements for tourists coming from the United States and other key markets.
“We welcome US investments in tourism to develop airports, airlines, hotels, and resorts that will make Malawi an excellent host for those who come to enjoy Malawi’s beautiful weather, beautiful lake, beautiful culture, and beautiful wildlife,” said the President.
Dr Chakwera added, “Similarly, in Mining, we have created licensing procedures and a structured market for our gold and rubies to end the era of exploitation and smuggling, and we welcome investor competition in the development of mines around all our precious minerals, including the recently discovered deposit of more rutile right outside Malawi’s capital than is found anywhere in the world.”
On Agriculture, the Malawi leader said the government has reorganized the four million smallholder farming households into cooperatives and clubs in which they can access affordable inputs like seeds and fertilizers to scale up their production for business instead of subsistence.
“This is just a teaser of what is to come. What excites us the most going forward is the Mega Farms initiative we have been pursuing aggressively in the past six months, whose goal is to combine Malawi’s vast resources of arable land, freshwater, and human capital with foreign investments in irrigation technologies to mass produce food and cash crops like Industrial Hemp, soya, rice, wheat, sunflower, macadamia, mangoes, bananas, pineapples, avocados, and maize to meet the demands of a growing global population.”
Earlier, US President Joe Biden reaffirmed his government’s commitment to working with Africa to accelerate progress toward achieving food security.
He announced several commitments and investments in Africa. He committed more than $50 billion in spending in Africa.
The President also announced an additional $2.5 billion in emergency aid and food security assistance, which builds upon over $11 billion in US humanitarian and food security assistance this year alone.
The session ended with Chakwera highlighting Malawi’s pursuit of attracting investment and trade through what he described as Malawi’s ATM (agriculture, tourism, and mining) strategy.