Former president of the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) has urged government to seriously implement the National Export Strategy (NES) for the country to boost exports.
In an interview Matthews Chikankheni, who is also Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Competition Commission (CCC) board chairperson, said there is need for aggressiveness in implementing the strategy.
Chikankheni said there has been too much talk on turning Malawi from a predominantly importing country to an exporting one without much action.
“Sometimes we import by choice; we have been talking about creating an export based economy and becoming a producing and exporting country instead of turning these slogans into reality,” Chikankheni said.
He said the country needs to work on improving the business environment to attract foreign direct investment (FDI).
NES was launched in 2012 to be implemented up to 2018. The strategy, among others, seeks to double Malawi’s exports value in the next five years.
The country’s exports are valued at around $1 billion (K450 billion) per year against the import value of about $2.3billion (K900 billion) and thus the strategy could help the country generate enough foreign currency.
