APM sees stable economy, more jobs in 2016
President Peter Mutharika says he is hopeful that the kwacha will stabilise, more jobs will be created and new businesses will be opened in the New Year as Malawi moves towards becoming a producing and exporting nation.
The President, in his New Year’s Address to the Nation, has also called on all Malawians to be positive and start with a collective resolution to believe in themselves and in government.
Mutharika said in a big way, government celebrates 2015 as the year it took historic and unprecedented steps in attracting private investment into the country.
He said government started the journey of making Malawi a predominantly producing and exporting country and it is entering 2016 with the firm belief that investment is the new road for Malawi’s economy.
Mutharika said he is looking forward to a better 2016 where government will continue to create a favourable environment for private investments and development.
In recent times, the kwacha which has lost substantial ground in the past seven months against major trading currencies, has continued to lose value against the dollar and British pound on account of low exports.
The local unit ended the year 2015 at its lowest, despite Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) efforts in revising the policy rate in the year, apparently to tame it.
As of yesterday, December 31 2015, the foreign exchange market indicated that the kwacha reached historic levels trading K1 000 to the British pound and K668 to the dollar.
This is despite that as in January 2015, the local currency was trading between K475 and K477 to the dollar in some authorised dealer banks (ADBs).
In terms of investments, in November 2015, the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (Mitc) announced that it has attracted investment pledges worth K120 billion (about $200.7 million) in the third quarter (July to September) of 2015.
Mitc public relations manager Deliby Chimbalu is on record as having said Mitc records, at that moment, indicated that 16 companies have been issued with investment certificates in the said period, in addition to the 41 companies that were issued with investment certificates between January and July 2015.
Although the government launched the National Export Strategy (NES) in 2012 and has been implementing the Buy Malawian Campaign, Malawians have still been importing goods and services including those that can locally be produced. n
