India model to inspire MW2063—Minister

Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Tembo says Malawi has marked India as its model in the implementation of Malawi 2063, the country’s long-term development strategy, following its graduation into the world’s top five economies.

The minister said this during Indian High Commission’s commemoration of their country’s 74th Republic Day in Lilongwe on Thursday night.

Tembo said: “This year’s celebration of the Republic Day is historic after India has been classified as the fifth world largest economy owing to the great strides and milestones achieved in its socio-economic transformation agenda.

“In light of this, the Government of Malawi will continue to use the existing mechanisms to learn lessons from India’s trajectory of development as we are in the process of implementing the Malawi 2063 long-term blueprint.”

The country’s 40-year development plan seeks to transform Malawi into a wealthy and self-reliant industrialised upper-middle-income country.

On his part, India High Commissioner to Malawi Subbiah Gopalakrishnan said his country’s development partnership with Lilongwe is founded on Malawi’s priorities.

He said: “Our approach is human-centric, based on principles of mutual respect and national ownership with a commitment to sustainable development for all.”

Gopalakrishnan said his country is committed to continue supporting Malawi’s push for socio-economic transformation.

India has over the years rallied its support towards Malawi with human capacity and infrastructural development in agriculture, health and economic sectors among others.

Gopalakrishnan said: “One of the pillars of our development partnership with Malawi is capacity building. Under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme, India offers over 150 training courses to Malawi in various fields, every year.

“Besides, about 35 fully funded scholarships are offered to Malawian students to study in premier Indian institutions every year.”