By Sheminah Nkhoma
Lilongwe, October 17, Mana: President of India Shrimati Droupadi Murmu has called for increased cooperation between Malawi and India in the areas of Agriculture, Tourism and Mining (ATM) to achieve the Malawi 2063 vision.
Speaking during the India-Malawi business round table on Thursday in Lilongwe, Murmu said the bilateral trade between India and Malawi has been growing for the past years despite some challenges like COVID-19 19 which affected the economic growth of both countries.
“India is the fastest growing economy as it is currently the fourth largest trading partner of Malawi and one of the largest investors in Malawi with $500 million of investments in different sectors in the country,” said Murmu.
She further said her government is committed to investing heavily in education, health sector and Information communication technology (ICT) among other potential investment sectors.
The President urged the business community in both countries to continue to work in synergy and to better the economic relations between India and Malawi.
In his remarks, Minister of Trade Sosten Gwengwe said the India-Malawi relations have helped in fostering various developmental activities in the country.
He however said, Malawi is a beneficiary of the Duty-Free Preferential Trading Scheme India offered to the least-developed countries (LDCs).
“India gave us market access for pigeon peas, and we had a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the same in 2020. But there are some challenges which exporters face because they use ports that are In Mozambique for their products”, said Gwengwe.
President of The Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) Wisely Phiri stated that the meeting was important as they are number of opportunities that they can get from India.
“The business segment in India is growing so we can invest in our country so that we should be exporting goods to India for a better economy,” he said.
India established diplomatic relations with Malawi immediately after its independence in 1964.
