By Mphatso Nkuonera
President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has said the state visit to Kenya and Malawi’s
participation at global conferences in Dubai and Scotland has yielded more benefits to the
citizens.
President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has made these remarks today [Tuesday] at Kamuzu
Palace in Lilongwe during a press briefing.
“The state visit to Kenya, Malawi’s participation at the United Arab Emirates at the Global
Sustainable Technology and innovation (GSTIC) Expo 2020 and finally our participation at
the United Nations Climate Change Conference the Conference of Parties (CoP26) is of great
importance.”
“We used these international platforms to woo investors to come and invest in Malawi in
sectors of trade, agriculture and energy. Malawi expects both short term and long term
benefits which should have not been realized if we could not physically have participated,”
he said.
Chakwera said his administration will leave no stone unturned to bring trade and investment
into this economy so that the sacrifices the citizens are making now must one day pay
dividends, while other investors have already started knocking at the doors.
Among other benefits the president said he signed eight agreements with Kenya that saw the
two countries long standing bilateral relationships being cemented farther and enhance
trading activities.
“Malawi cannot make huge strides in fighting climate change impacts because it requires huge
sums of billions of United States dollars. Using sustainable energy and restoring its glory back
to its place minus donors it’s not possible, may be the best we can achieve using our
resources is five per cent. This is why the global village wants to take the adoption of
sustainable energy and reversing climate change impacts as one unit,” he said.
He then advised Malawians to be patient as the leadership was now working on fixing the
development ailments that the country inherited from the previous political administrations,
referring to his previous speech he delivered on his inaugural address on Independence Day
last year, on the expected pains that Malawians would go through in addressing challenges.“I knew at the time that Malawi was a nation in critical condition and suffering multiple
organ failure, and that the battery of treatments to be administered would be a bitter pill for
all of us to swallow. That is why I also gave a warning of the sacrifices we would all have to
make to nurse our failing economy back to health. In fact, my exact words on that occasion
were the following:
“We must not imagine that it is possible to make these corrections without pain. We must
accept that the national bones we have dislocated cannot be corrected without
suffering…We must have the courage to face and endure the pain of systemic surgery if we
ever want to enjoy wholeness as a nation. That season of national surgery is now upon us
now,” he said.
To maximize opportunity at the COP26, he said some ministers are still in Scotland to ensure
that the country is represented at every meeting to harvest much.
The president added that time for telling lies to citizens is over as that would only create
more work on his table.
“I cannot be here today to share lies with the nation, you saw how lying has cost us, when
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank visited us, where it was
discovered that Malawi was not reporting the truth on foreign currency cover and other
things. But I promise you that, all this will be history after we will have painfully nursed
these wounds,” he added.
The president then assured citizens that his administration will not bring laws that do not
benefit the country, and further said any laws that are not rated well may be repealed to
equal with the constitution.
The president was flanked by Ministry of Information, Gospel Kazako and Minister of Foreign affairs Hon Mkaka.
