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Vice President Justin Malewezi said on Saturday there is need for African countries like Malawi to practise good political, social, corporate and economic governance if they are to attract more investment into their countries.
Speaking during a press conference at Lilongwe International Airport on arrival from the World Economic Forum in South Africa, Malewezi said delegates at the summit agreed to emphasise on good governance as key to attracting more investment.
“We agreed to emphasise that good economic governance, corporate governance, social governance and political governance are needed for investment to flow. On political governance, democratic principles were highlighted,” said Malewezi.
He said Malawi has made gains and progress in all areas of governance highlighted at the meeting although he said there was need to improve certain areas.
However, the vice president could not be drawn to comment on specific areas that need improvement, saying: “what is necessary is that the country has the determination to improve its governance and that it is making tremendous progress.”
Malewezi said the summit also agreed to lobby Western countries to open up their markets to African countries which, he said, are still finding it difficult to penetrate with their commodities.
He said the African countries, however, also agreed to intensify their partnership in trade and investment among themselves to create confidence to the outside world.
“At the moment not all African money is in Africa. Most African investors prefer investing in Western banks, which shows lack of confidence. We need to create confidence in Africa for other continents to follow,” said Malewezi.
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