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The Malawi Export Promotion Council (Mepc) says the country needs to diversify its export base by offering more skills to other countries rather than concentrating on exporting products alone.
Mepc Research and Projects Manager Grandford Banda said Monday exporting skills could bring more foreign exchange to the country and develop its capacity to replace tobacco as the country’s foreign exchange earner.
Malawi is an agro-based economy with agriculture accounting for more than 80 percent of exports with tobacco alone contributing around 60 percent.
The country is currently looking for a replacement of tobacco as a major forex earner as the crop continues to face stiff resistance due to the anti-smoking lobby and declining prices.
“We have a lot of intelligent young [men and women] who have graduated in various disciplines from our universities and are just staying idle because they can’t get jobs as our economy is very small to accommodate them.
“There is a need to export surplus skills which may help the country to realise the much needed forex,” said Banda.
He said some of the services with export potential include accounting, auditing, health services, legal services, peacekeeping and security services.
“All we need to do is to develop our intellectual capabilities in some of these areas which we may be able to export to other countries and make money,” said Banda.
The idea of exporting skills comes at a time when the country is struggling to combat the problem of brain drain especially in the area of nursing which has left the country’s health delivery system crippled.
“This brain drain could be easily converted into brain gain if our government could put in place mechanisms for these sons and daughters of Malawi to easily repatriate the money realised. This could be used to develop our weak economy,” said Banda.
Exportation of skills is believed to have transformed economies of other countries like the Philippines, which posted $11 billion in 2004 in remittances from overseas professional workers.
He said a group of Malawian businessmen would from tomorrow be attending a three-day International Trade Centre (ITC) sponsored conference in South Africa. The programme is aimed at facilitating networks and fostering partnerships among service industry associations to promote skills exports in the Sadc region.
Recently, President Bingu wa Mutharika announced government’s intention to liberalise the foreign exchange system. The liberalised system will give an opportunity to Malawians living abroad to operate Foreign Denominated Accounts in Malawi as a way of encouraging them to channel their wealth to back home.
Reserve Bank of Malawi governor Victor Mbewe said Monday from next January, Malawian citizens living outside the country would be able to open Foreign Currency Dominated Accounts (FCDAs) with authorised dealer banks in Malawi.
Mbewe said in a statement that the accounts would not be subjected to the current exchange control regulations.
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