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| National services coalition is born |
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by
Moses Michael-Phiri, 10 January 2007
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06:40:25
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In a drive to speak with one voice in the business of exporting services in the country, a national services coalition has been formed, the Malawi Export Promotions Council (Mepc) announced Tuesday.
To be called the Malawi Coalition of Service Industries (Macosi), the coalition is expected to be launched later this month.
According to Grandford Banda, Mepc senior manager for research and projects, the coalition has been formed to accelerate the services sector and raise awareness on service exports.
“It is important to note that promoting trade in services offers many developing countries the opportunity to diversify trade and positively contribute towards job creation and economic development. We can only achieve these goals if we speak with one voice,” he said.
Banda also said the national services coalition would basically be an umbrella body responsible for strategically representing the service associations on policy and bringing together service firms and associations on export issues of interest.
“The coalition is going to help service firms to identify and advocate their commercial trading opportunities and develop new markets for their services. A coalition will draw together business experiences in domestic and foreign markets through local firms operating in foreign markets,” he said.
Banda said while helping to educate its membership on trade policy issues in services talks, the coalition would also help identify market access priorities for governments in trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) both regionally and bilaterally as well as contribute to a domestic agenda that strengthens service trade and export opportunities.
The formation of the coalition which so far has membership of 35 associations representing over 10,000 service firms in the country follows a series of training sessions at the recent International Trade Centre (ITC) meetings.
According to Mepc, Malawi’s export of services generated 10.5 percent of the total export earnings in 2002, up from 5.2 percent in 1995 representing an annual average growth rate of 14.6 percent.
The coalition will be funded by members’ contributions and is eyeing donor funding during the first two years of its establishment.
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