Malawi’s one-stop-shop operational
Malawi’s long awaited one-stop-shop, an arrangement where investors access all relevant institutions including Department of Immigration, Registrar General, and Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) under one roof is now operational.
One-stop-shop often praised for improving doing business is now housed at the Malawi Investment Trade Centre (MITC) and will be the first point of call for all investors according to authorities.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday, Minister of Industry and Trade Joseph Mwananvekha said effective September 1 2014 the shop would be up and running to provide investors with the much needed information under one roof.
“In this respect, all enquiries on investment matters in all sectors across Malawi will be handled by MITC. This will greatly reduce the cost of opening and doing business in the country,” said Mwananvekha.
But in a telephone interview on Wednesday MITC public relations manager Deliby Chimbalu said some of the officers have already reported at the one-stop-shop while others are yet to.
“The one-stop-shop will include officers from MRA, Registrar General, Department of Immigration, and Home Affairs,” said Chimbalu without specifically saying who is yet to report to the shop.
Commenting on business environment in Malawi, Mwananvekha noted that the government is concerned that the country continues to underperform in the ease of doing business ranking, with Malawi dropping from 161 to 171 on the 2014 World Bank’s Doing Business ranking.
He, however, attributed Malawi’s fall on the ranking on other countries which are relatively reforming quicker.
According to Mwananvekha Malawi initiated several reforms but these are not recognised by the private sector.
According to the trade minister the government intends to implement the reforms as quickly as possible as well as improving the communication of the reforms to the private sector.
According to authorities the government is currently finalising the regulations which once implemented will assist government in regulating foreign traders businesses.
To improve cross border trade the government is undertaking reforms amongst which include reducing the number of agencies operating at the border from 14 to five to reduce time taken to clear goods.
The government also intends to establish one-stop-border-posts at strategic border posts such as at Songwe, Mchinji, Dedza, Mandimba and Mwanza.
Against the backdrop of the government’s efforts, Malawi has improved on the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2014-15 Competiveness Index released on Wednesday.
According to the report which assesses the competitiveness landscape of 144 economies, and provides insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity, Malawi has this year improved to 132 out of 144 economies from 136 out of 148 economies in the previous report.
