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MIRTDC critical for smes industrialisation

Malawi’s small business operators have been advised to develop small-scale industries to engage in full-scale production to maximise their potential.
Small and Medium Enterprises Association (Smea), a small businesses group, has said government institutions such as the Malawi Industrial Research and Technology Development Centre (MIRTDC) are critical in ensuring that SMEs take the industrialisation route by providing innovative technologies.
Smea has implored government to ensure that MIRTDC is adequately funded to ensure it has structures complete with state-of-the-art equipment and laboratories to ensure the parastatal provides new innovations for use by small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
“SMEs in Malawi require small-scale industrialisation to carry out small-scale production such as extraction of cooking oil from the easily available seeds, manufacturing of better and efficient energy stoves and production of storage facilities for perishable goods.
“Research by Smea shows that the country has the necessary structures to develop SMEs but inherent problems do exist that have made the institutions function at half throttle,” Smea president James Chiutsi told Business News this week

Business operators in Blantyre
Business operators in Blantyre
Chiutsi said research techniques developed by the centre, which receives funding from government, should be at par with what the developed world has for the country to excel technologically.
The need to fund MIRTDC to pursue the SMEs agenda is on the realisation that research and technological development is not cheap, but that if properly implemented, the expenditure will become a worthwhile investment.
This means that the centre could come in handy with innovative technologies to be used by SMEs to help the country to stop importing items such as tooth picks, matches or treated cotton wool, among others, to save the much-needed foreign exchange.
Chiutsi said on a national scale, MIRTDC must be charged with responsibilities of reducing or eliminating the massive deforestation in the country.
“By innovating more renewable energies like solar, bio-gas and micro-hydro energies , the deforestation problem will be solved and release many individuals to embark in small-scale businesses in the energy sector,” he said.
Economic Empowerment Action Group (Eeag) executive director Temson Chinjala said it is high time SMEs graduated and started producing goods that could compete on the local and regional markets.
“Malawi has perpetually been a net import over the years and SMEs could help in import substitution to save the country’s foreign exchange which is lost due to imports of things we can produce locally,” he said.
SMEs, which are regarded as the “missing middle”, provide a livelihood for millions of Malawians by supporting economic growth and employment creation and substantially contributing to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The development of SMEs has long been regarded as crucial for the achievement of broader economic development objectives, including poverty alleviation and job creation.
Currently, SMEs and entrepreneurs in Malawi face overwhelming challenges, including lack of managerial skills, access to finance, unsupportive business environment, market competition, fast technological advancement, poor infrastructure, lack of market information and industry standards.
Meanwhile, government has drafted a new SMEs policy which will guide the sector for the next five years, following its review that began in July last year.
Government believes the new draft policy is consistent with the five-year Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS).

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