Indian govt committed to development work in Malawi
The Indian government says it is ready to deepen its relations to help Malawians export their products to India.
Indian high commissioner, Suresh Menon made the call on Friday at pre-launch visit of the incubation at the Small Medium Enterprise and Development Institute (Smedi) Development Centre at Mponela donated by the Inidan government.
He said his government recognises small medium enterprises (SMEs) as the largest employers and looks forward to seeing more Malawians products in supermarkets.
“The project started in 2016 and it has taken some time but it has finally kicked off. Apart from the incubation project, the Indian Government is carrying out other projects in Malawi such as Sugar Plant in Salima, fuel reserves in Mzuzu, Blantyre and Lilongwe and the workshop for the disabled at Kamuzu Central Hospital.
“The incubation project has already taken 24 trainees in the pilot phase in its first cohort of trainees. The project has three technologies which include agro-processing, fuel briquetting and gemstone processing,” said Menon.
SMEs director in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism Wiskes Nkombezi said the project will fulfil the goals of empowering Malawians as government is prepared to train SMEs through its arms in equipping them with necessary skills to run their businesses.
“The incubation project came about as a way of implementing government policies. I encourage the project team to take good care of the machinery that has been donated. We will try hard to find a solution in helping SMEs further after they have acquired trainings.
“The project will enable local communities to use it as an instrument to promote social development, business culture, generate jobs and mobilise local resources, enable entrepreneurs increase skills and synergies for running their business and increase earnings by MSMEs from the value addition producers coupled with advanced value addition techniques,” he said .
The project started in 2016 and the Malawi Government handed it to Smedi to run it. n
