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President Muluzi on Wednesday urged Malawians to look into the future with “full of hope and confidence” saying his government has already set up a springboard to take the country to “greater heights of prosperity”, but Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) on Thursday thought otherwise
Opening the 37th session of Parliament in Lilongwe, Muluzi said the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development has prepared the Malawi Economic Growth Strategy in collaboration with the private sector and “our development partners” through the National Action Group which will be facilitated by the public sector investment programme being currently prepared.
He said the Malawi Economic Growth Strategy seeks to overcome the policy, institutional and other constraints to growth in each of the key sectors of the economy, saying for the country to tackle poverty “our economy has to grow sustaitanably at high rates.”
“In order to ensure that the priority economic sectors generate this high growth rate, certain policies and support public institutions will need to be reformed and restructured and some infrastructure investments are required in the key sectors of the economy,” he said.
“I am pleased to report that, the Government and other partners are already making progress in removing some of the constraints to growth in the agriculture, tourism, mining and energy sectors of the economy,” said Muluzi. “These sectors are also being priotised for both public and private sector investment.”
On the resumption of aid to Malawi, Muluzi said government plans to use the resources freed through “this assistance to retire our domestic debt”, saying “this together with a substantial reduction in domestic borrowing will lead to the lowering of interest rates and an increase in private sector investment and hence economic growth.”
He said: “I am optimistic that our country will start to grow at the required high level of economic growth. I am also encouraged by the preliminary estimates that suggest that our economy is likely to grow by about 4.4 percent in the year 2003.”
But Cama Executive Director John Kapito described Muluzi’s statements as “empty because his administration has seen the country going through an economic genocide”, saying the only significant thing was the enactment of the consumer protection law, hoping it would be implemented.
“The years have been disastrous,” said Kapito.
He said under Muluzi’s administration “a number of companies have folded up, the country experienced the worst taxes, there has been no foreign direct investment and donor fatigue took place, prices of commodities have gone up and the housing sector has deterioated.
“The closure of companies has led to the worst cases of unemployment. The deterioration of the housing industry has meant that people are living in shacks. The fact that there has been no foreign director investment means that no jobs have been created.
“There has been a reversal of economics where the poorest are the ones that have borne the blunt of taxes. Today people cannot afford basic commodities. These have been bad 10 years for a consumer,” said Kapito.
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