Malawi-India trade jumps 85%
This was disclosed during a bilateral meeting on Wednesday between Indian Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma and Malawi’s Industry and Trade Minister John Bande in New Delhi, India.
According to online publication, SME Times the two ministers expressed satisfaction over the rise in bilateral trade between the countries.
Trade between the two countries amounted to $61 million between April and November 2010.
Trade between the two countries is heavily skewed in favour of India. Malawi’s exports to India are dominated by raw products such as pulses with the Asian nation exporting high value commodities such as appalled.
During the meeting, the two ministers stressed the need to increase the trade volume and expand the basket of products to the advantage of the two countries.
Referring to the recent commitment of revising the trade target with Africa to US$ 90 billion by year 2015, Sharma said: “There is a need to strengthen the trade relationship between the two sides through building of trade-related capacity …Our leaders had set a target of US$ 70 billion by 2015 but we can note with satisfaction that last year, we crossed US$60 billion. A 20-fold growth within a decade is indeed an achievement worth applauding.”
Sharma pledged India’s willingness to support Malawi in its economic development in the areas of agriculture, railways, rehabilitation, hydro power stations and solar energy.
He also expressed satisfaction that Malawi utilised the $30 million Indian Line of Credit (LOC) extended to it in 2008 for irrigation, grain storage and tobacco threshing projects.
According to SME Times, Malawi has also submitted projects under the LOC of $50 million announced during Vice President Hamid Ansari’s visit which has been approved and the loan agreement would be signed after Malawi has completes its internal approvals.
