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The Nacala corridor has been there for sometime. Whether it has translated into a profitable route or not is one thing.
A new route has now opened up with a great potential to make a difference on the Malawi economy.
Unlike the Nacala Corridor, which is solely about railway transport, Ntwara combines road and water transport. Its geographical make up in Malawi includes the Central and Northern regions and Mangochi district in the Southern Region.
In Mozambique it covers the Niassa and Cabo Delgado provinces, in Tanzania, Mtwara, Lindi, Ruvuma, Iringa, Mbeya, Rukwa regions and the coastal (Pwani) and Morogoro regions to the south of the Rofji river. In Zambia it is the Eastern and Northern provinces.
The governments of these four countries jointly established the Mtwara development corridor programme with the overall objective of developing their region through improved integration of infrastructure that will lead to reduced input costs for investment in export oriented economic sectors so as to promote cross-border trade among the four countries.
The corridor has a population of 14 million from all the four member-states with a combined estimated Gross Domestic Product of US$2.4 billion and a GDP per capita of approximately US$165.
The corridor was originally conceived by the SATCC-Sadc during a Sadc transport and communications study of 1992, as an area of tremendous potential to support economic growth for the landlocked regions of northern Malawi and northern Zambia.
In 1997 the four governments agreed to widen the scope of the corridor from its simple transport infrastructure and harnessing other economic opportunities that arise along the route and its catchment area.
The main reason was to develop a seamless road transport corridor from the Zambian trunk road network onto the Malawi networks terminating in Nkhata Bay in Malawi where a capacity lake ferry would transport vehicles, freight or passengers across the lake to Mbamba-bay in southern Tanzania.
Both the East-West and the North-South linkages would be consolidated by improving and expanding the services offered by the Malawi Lake Services to lakeside communications in all the three member states.
Mtwara development corridor focuses on developing and rehabilitating roads, as well as lake, pipeline and air transport.
Good examples of the proposals in Malawi are the rehabilitation of the Chiweta road, Karonga-Chitipa road, establishment of a heavy capacity ferry between Mbamba-bay and Nkhata-Bay as well as to maintain existing and promoting new export oriented investment in agriculture.
Fisheries include inland lake and coastal resources as well as aquaculture related to the inland fisheries.
There is a lot of potential in terms of agriculture as far as the northern part of this country is concerned. In Karonga, Rumphi and some parts of Mzimba districts, thousands of tones of rice are produced that are normally exported and come back as value added products.
When Mtwara Corridor gets operational other investors would be willing to open factories right here in Malawi, which would help alleviate the unemployment problem in the country.
In Nkhata Bay, Rubber is grown in abundance, but its potential is not fully utilised. In some neighbouring countries, tyre making companies are looking for good quality rubber like the one produced in this country. The Mtwara initiative will ease transportation of the product, using water routes.
Sugar from Illovo is also in high demand in Tanzania, according to Malawi Lake Services which transports about 50,000 tonnes across to Tanzania.
Other products include the country’s popular Chambo fish, which is top of the menu of five-star hotels in neighbouring countries, cane furnished chairs from Salima, Nkhotakota and other districts along the lake, tobacco and tea.
Minister of Transport and Public Works Henry Mussa said the government is looking forward to benefiting from the corridor as a means of transport.
Malawi Lake Services general manager Anton Botes said his company would help earn more forex through the tourism industry.
“Every five tourists replace 500 local passengers in terms of money value so this could be very important if the company is best utilised,” Botes said.
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