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| Exporters get 25% incentive |
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by
Ayam Maeresa, 05 September 2002
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The government has approved a 25 percent transport allowance as an incentive for local registered exporters, the Malawi Export Promotion Council (Mepc) has confirmed.
Mepc senior manager for research and projects Grandford Banda said in an interview in Blantyre on Monday the incentive was arrived at after considering that the biggest impediment to exporting was the high costs associated with shipment of goods.
Banda said Mepc, through the Trade Facilitation Department, made the recommendations to government as an incentive to the exporters.
He said as a landlocked country, local exporters were disadvantaged and ended up paying highly for transport alone which, he said, discouraged most interested business people.
“Government has accepted it and all registered exporters will now benefit from this incentive,” said Banda, adding that the 25 percent transport allowance will be deducted from an exporter’s total transport costs.
Although this was a good development for exporters, Banda said Mepc was urging them not to waste time searching for far off markets for their goods when they could find same opportunities in the region.
He said turning to regional markets will not only be cost effective for the exporters but will also be convenient for the business people.
Said Banda: “We are now urging the business community to look for alternative markets in the region rather than waste time hunting for far off markets, which will simply bring transport difficulties.”
According to Banda, minnows such as Malawi in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) have export opportunities in the regional economic giant South Africa.
Malawi will also benefit from the regional export training project covering Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia and Malawi.
The project is part of the pilot project initiated by a Germany Non Governmental Organisation Carl Duiseberg Gesellschaft (CDG) called CDG Trade Africa aimed at promoting intra-regional trade.
Dubbed CDG Trade Africa, the project seeks to address business and export constraints faced by exporters in the region by providing them with the necessary skills that will allow them identify possible business financiers, produce quality products, do export market research and take advantages of export opportunities in view of the challenges posed by globalisation.
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