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| North, Centre endorse local business grouping |
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by
Our Reporter, 10 November 2004
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11:34:45
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Local traders based in the Northern and Central regions at the weekend endorsed the proposed Indigenous Businesses Association of Malawi (Ibam) and mandated the interim convenors to hold national elections to put in place a committee that will lobby for a better business environment.
Briefing journalists in Blantyre on Monday on the two meetings in Lilongwe and Mzuzu, Countrywide Group of Companies managing director Mike Mlombwa said during both meetings local business operators said they want to see change where they should be in the forefront of economic activity.
“The business men and women who attended the meetings said they also want government to put in place deliberate measures to give Malawian-owned businesses 60 percent of government contracts and that foreigners should share the difference,” he said.
During the Lilongwe meeting, Mlombwa said, entrepreneurs also complained that prime land for businesses was being given to foreigners.
He said this view was also shared in Mzuzu where some business operators complained that the North got a raw deal from the Chikangawa forest as it was now owned by Tanzanians.
Mlombwa said Ibam has now finished national consultations and would soon invite representatives from the Central and Northern regions to Blantyre to elect a committee that will chart the way forward.
“Most of the delegates said they admired the black empowerment in Zimbabwe and South Africa where black people are rich and own properties and bid investments,” he said.
Ibam’s first consultative meeting was held in Blantyre three weeks ago where delegates resolved to support the National Economic Empowerment policy currently being developed.
Business consultant Mark Maleta told the Blantyre meeting that the economic empowerment policy was modelled along the lines of South Africa’s Black Empowerment Policy and tackles issues like access to capital and training for the indigenous entrepreneurs to build their capacity.
While lobbying government to make deliberate policies that do not marginalise local Malawians in accessing capital, land and business opportunities, Ibam will, among other things, also advocate for joint ventures between indigenous Malawian owned companies and foreign investors wishing to invest in Malawi to provide better working conditions. |
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