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Northern chamber smells gold in Tanzania
By
Francis Tayanjah-Phiri - 27-03-2003 |
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The Northern Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) says it is impressed with the potential market for Malawian goods in Tanzania, stressing it would benefit the country if informal cross boarder trade by the two countries is formalised.
“It is encouraging to note that items such as Malawi sugar and Powers Number 1 spirit are in great demand in Tanzania, in areas stretching from Mbeya to Dar es Salaam. Malawi can take advantage of this to formally market these and many other products,” said NRCCI Regional Manager Kinnord Mkwinda in an interview.
Mkwinda, who alongside the chamber’s General Secretary and member Samson Chibwana, travelled to Mbeya to set the pace for an intended link with the Tanzanian regional business captains, said the delegation was also impressed with the way Tanzanians value their local products.
He said: “We as Malawians need to emulate the example of the Tanzanians who are always proud of their local products as opposed to imported ones. This has supported companies in that country to flourish and manufacturing to escalate, hence improving their economy.”
According to the delegation, the Tanzanian chamber had yielded results in assisting government to boost the economy by campaigning vigorously that people buy locally produced products.
Said Mkwinda: “This, coupled with their government’s support in designing policies that wholesale promote industries, has made Tanzanian chambers and business people very successful, a lesson we can learn here.”
However, he said despite the stress for locally manufactured goods, their Tanzanian counterparts still encouraged them that Malawi products like sugar, spirits, and many more consumable products were in high demand there.
Said Mkwinda: “Our counterparts challenged us on the need to be proactive and aggressively enhance marketing our products to their country and they were very excited in establishing a trade link with us.”
The three-man NRCCI delegation was an advance group working on the link between business captains from the two sides, before a major forum between the two sides, slated for May.
Mkwinda said the lessons learnt in their advance tour would greatly assist them in planning for the main meeting, which is expected to strengthen trade links between the two groups.
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