By Bishop Witmos

Mangochi, October 2, Mana: Minister of Tourism, Vera Kamtukule challenged government and private sectors to be at the helm of propelling the attainment of the country’s development blue-print of Malawi 2063 vision.

Speaking during the Leadership Summit at Sunbird Nkopola in Mangochi this week Kamtukule said that the realisation of Malawi's 2063 development agenda cannot be achieved if public and private sectors fail to embrace mindset change.

She therefore asked government and private sectors to align their strategic plans in line with Agriculture, Tourism and Mining (ATM) strategy.

‘‘Realisation of aspirations of 2063 Malawi development agenda will not be accomplished if government is working in isolation. Each one of us, both the government and private sector, must align themselves to 2063 through agriculture, tourism and mining to move towards transformation.’

‘‘Let us focus on ourselves as we want to become a middle-income economy. For us to achieve that we need everyone on board,’ she said.

Kamtukule however expressed satisfaction with progress of the Malawi Implementation (MIP-1) for the first five years by both government agencies as well as private sector, saying they are making strides.

‘‘As government, we feel that we are on the right track during the five years of MIP-1, but a lot also needs to be done if the desired outcomes are to be realized,’’ she said.

The leadership conference was organized by Wealth Magazine, a local entrepreneur and business marketing publication, under a theme, Aligning ATM strategy towards Malawi 2063: the leadership perspective’.

In his remarks, Head of Research at National Planning Commission (NAC) Andrew Jamali said it was pleasing to note that alignment of Malawi strategies was taking shape.

‘‘As a commission, we are happy that Malawi has set goals and that our strategies are taking shape. That is what we want,’’ said Jamali. 

Wealth Magazine, Executive Manager, Harry Chima urged technocrats to share knowledge and skills to push the ATM strategy and the Malawi 2063 aspirations forward.

Over 500 heads of government agencies and the private sector attended the conference.