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Home Business Business News

Ibam feel sidelined in Merp formulation

by Johnny Kasalika
02/10/2012
in Business News
2 min read
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The Indigenous Businesses Association of Malawi (Ibam), an umbrella body of local entrepreneurs, feels sidelined in the formulation of the Malawi Economic Recovery Plan (Merp) which was launched on Friday.

Mulli Brothers Holding managing director Leston Mulli wished if government had consulted local entrepreneurs before coming up with Merp.

“Sidelining local entrepreneurs in government’s efforts to bring back the economy on track is a non-starter because we have been running businesses in the country for many years and we know the causes of the country’s economic challenges,” he said.

Mulli, who feel government is favouring foreign investors at the expense of local businesses, said Malawi needs “a lot of ground breaking to stabilise the economy”.

He said currently businesses continue to be strangled by the shortage of forex, erratic fuel supplies and high lending rates which pose a challenge to the recovery plan.

“Apart from the fact that there is no engagement of local businesspeople who know all corners of the economy, how can the recovery plan work without tangible strategies?” queried Mulli.

He added that continuous blackouts and unreliable water supply are likely to antagonise government recovery plan.

Finance Minister Dr Ken Lipenga declined to comment on Mulli’s remarks, referring the reporter to Minister of Economic Planning and Development Atupele Muluzi who could not be reached as we went to press on Monday.

But during the launch of the plan, Muluzi called upon all Malawians to own the plan.

But when he launched the plan, Vice-President Khumbo Kachali said government consulted widely to come up with the document and incorporated recommendation from the conference on the national dialogue on the economy that took place in Mangochi from June 28 to July 1 2012.

Kachali also said implementation of the plan will involve all stakeholders including the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary, civil society organisations, private sector and the public.

“As a nation, we need to work together, move forward and never look back. This is a noble war we must fight together,” he said.

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  • FIriday was a night of nightmares at the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe during the premiere of Is the President Dead? 
Technical glitches, indications of ill preparedness came one after the other during the screening of the movie leaving patrons wondering why the premi-ere was slated for the night. 
As one was taking a seat in the  auditorium, one was  greeted by a screen looking rather too small. The name big screen did not befit this particular ‘screen’.  
The movie was scheduled to start at 6pm, but it started at 8pm. Patrons then stopped grumbling, but their joy was short-lived as at 20 minutes before 9pm the movie went mute and a few minutes later the whole screen went black.  
The patrons protested in unison with a loud ‘aaah!’ By 8.43 pm, the screen came back to life only for it to go black again for five minutes. 
At this moment the MC, Joab Chakhaza came on stage with an apology while the technical team addressed the problem. He called on stage the lead actor Edin Chonde to engage patrons as they waited for screening to resume.  
Chonde shared a brief history of the movie industry in the country.
 His narration started from the time of  To Ndirande Mountain With Love, a movie that was shot when Blantyre’s Ndirande Mountain had trees. 
Chonde talked about other local movie producers such as Charles Shemu Joya and Joyce Mhango Chavula.  
He then started explaining what the movie they were premiering was all about. In his words, Is the President Dead? relates to relatable issues in the coun-try, especially events that happened towards the end of president Bingu wa Mutharika’s reign.  
Chonde was, however, quick to dissociate the movie from the true story of the late president saying: “There could be some similarities here and there, but this is purely a work of fiction.” 
The patrons started booing him as they felt that he was pre-emptying the movie’s storyline. 
Then it was clear that there was a serious technical problem so much that there was high possibility of the movie not being screened. 
The audience got tired of Chonde’s talk and shouted at him to leave the stage. He  obliged and the DJ played some music to fill the gap. 
At 9.06pm, the screen came back to life but the movie did not start from where it stopped. It was also obvious that the movie was played  from an editing programme Adobe Premiere.  
The movie producer Isaac Misoya told The Nation that the copy  had been corrupted; hence,  audio was mute.
“Now, on Adobe Premiere, there were jump cut transitions which presented black screens as the clips were transitioning from one clip to another,” he said. 
There were too many technical glitches and the patrons’ patience ran thin. 
The challenges continued until 11pm when the movie premiere ended unceremoniously as there were no credits at the end of the film.  
Misoya, jumped on stage to apologise to patrons, but he was met with hostility.  
However, he acknowledged that they had worked under pressure because they had set the deadlines of their project too tight.  
He said: “We couldn’t cancel the premiere because the dates were already set. The product which we have shown is not what we arranged to show.”
 Looking through the movie, one can tell that the movie has a good storyline and the project was well planned save for the last part.  
On Saturday, the movie producers released a statement apologising to patrons and promised them  another premiere using the same tickets.
On its part, Film Association of Malawi also released a statement advising the producers to postpone the Blantyre premiere which was scheduled for yes-terday, until all the challenges are sorted.
Patrons left the venue before the movie ended

    Chaos at ‘Is the President Dead’ movie premiere

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