Lipenga’s forex meet set for Sat

Malawi’s Finance and Development Planning Minister Dr Ken Lipenga on Saturday will date business captains and economic experts to strategise on how to diversify the economy and broaden the country’s forex base.

The meeting comes against a critical forex crisis which has crippled operations of both government and private sector.

Ironically, the meeting comes barely four months after Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM)governor Dr Perks Ligoya, a critical member of President Bingu wa Mutharika’s economic team, held a similar conference at the same venue, Sunbird Mount Soche, on September 13 2011.

A statement from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning released on Thursday said the aim of Saturday’s consultative workshop is to solicit views, contributions and input from all stakeholders in Malawi on how best the country can boost foreign currency generation and export diversification.

The agenda is not in any way different from the September 13 2011 meeting organised by Ligoya with almost the same guest list.

During the September meeting, business captains gave the High Level Conference on Export Diversification and Generation plenty of ideas on how to diversify the economy and generate  $1 billion [about K167 billion] in export earnings by September 30 2012.

“I would like us to deliberate and make decisions on practical solutions that will be executed within an agreed time frame that should unlock potentials on the supply side of the economy,” said Ligoya at the time.

“The idea is that at the end of the day, we should have a concrete action plan that will launch the export diversification drive in earnest. Considering the current balance of payments position and projections, let us aim for a minimum target of $1 billion in new exports by September 2012.

“This is an achievable target, which will very much rely on the collective execution of the plan we will formulate today,” said Ligoya.