Malawi must create wealth—Atupele
United Democratic Front (UDF) president Atupele Muluzi says Malawi needs to create wealth and protect poor people by managing public resources well and ensuring that the poor have a say on how the country is run.
Muluzi said this on Thursday in his keynote address during the opening of the party’s two-day national policy conference in Lilongwe.
He said Malawi has failed to create wealth for all Malawians, arguing that many people are languishing on the margins of development.
“Creating wealth for this country rests on our ability to provide an enabling environment for this to happen. This means generating confidence of the private sector to invest in small, medium and large-scale initiatives.
“Guaranteeing our farmers that they will get their crops to the market safely, providing appropriate skills to all especially our young men and women to get decent jobs in a market friendly environment,” said Muluzi.
He said the policy conference marks the dawn of the new way that Malawians should view politics and government.
“This marks a seismic shift from focusing on petty vendetta, personality politics and uninformed discourse, to a robust and well informed dialogue on what must and should do to transform our society into a wealthy and well governed nation,” he said.
After Muluzi’s address, a panel comprising former Reserve Bank governor Victor Mbewe, Dr Kholiwe Mkandawire, activist Fostus Chirwa and Leon Matanda led a debate on the presentation.
The conference attracted some notable UDF members such as Moses Dossi, Lucius Banda, Lillian Patel, Jan Jaap Sonke, Austin Kalimanjira and the party’s publicity secretary Ken Ndanga.
