Chinese Ambassador Shi Ting Wang has reiterated that the Kammwamba Coal Fired Power Plant project remains Beijing’s top priority among China’s listed development projects in the country.
Once completed, the proposed power plant is expected to generate about 300 megawatts (MW) on top of the existing power capacity which the Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) generates from its power plants at Nkula, Tedzani and Kapichira.
Shi Ting disclosed this in an interview with The Nation on the sidelines of his visit to Nation Publications Limited (NPL) Blantyre Head office on Monday.
“The energy sector is a bottleneck of Malawi’s development so we want to assist the country in addressing this problem and we are steadily working on that. As soon as this project is done, the current power shortages will become history,” Shi Ting said.
The persistent power blackouts have moved from bad to worse, with energy distributor Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) now executing massive load shedding programmes that have seen some parts of the country having over 24 hours of no electricity.
However, the Chinese envoy expressed optimism that Malawi is on the right path to prosperity, especially if the nation invests more in education and infrastructure, among others.
“As you know most of the infrastructure is not good enough. But I am confident Malawi is a country which has very candid and hardworking people so I believe it has a bright direction, particularly with financial assistance from China and other bilateral partners,” he added.
Earlier reports indicated that President Peter Mutharika had, in some of his correspondence with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, asked Beijing to invest in Malawi’s worsening energy sector amid the country’s continued low power generation. n
