Local industry can inspire economic recovery

Everywhere in the world, economists, technocrats and ruling politicians hardly sleep when the economies of their respective countries are collapsing.

They employ every trick in the book to turn around the fortunes of economy, but just like a crashed or broken computer, it is rare that financial systems respond.

At the height of the worst economic crisis in 2011, petroleum industry was one the sectors that almost collapsed, forcing Malawi to operate on hand-to-mouth basis.

The problem was mostly blamed on lack of fuel reservoirs. Worse still Malawi spends most of its resources to import perishable and non-perishable goods from South Africa, China and Japan thereby enriching the already rich countries.

Petroleum Engineering Services Limited (Petserv) business development manager Bright Kawaga, thinks some of the challenges the country was going through could have been averted if local companies received enough support from government as well as private sector.

For instance, Kawaga challenges that Petserv could have helped in stimulating Malawi’s economic growth as it encompasses a wide range of disciplines such as geophysics, economics, irrigation farming, and reservoir simulation using locally manufactured products.

He says the company has 48 years’ experience in manufacturing and supplying fuel tanks, tobacco bailing presses, water bowsers, piping, flanges, and all type of steel cutting, bending and welding.

Petserv also manufactures and supplies fuel pumps, water tanks, fuel depot maintenances and industrial cooking pots, steel structures, roofing trusses and plastic bottles and caps and firefighting equipment and fire alarms system sale, installation and servicing.

“We are located in Ginnery Corner, Blantyre and Kanengo Industrial Site in Lilongwe and employee a total of approximately 80 highly trained people,” Kawaga said.