Mitc to release new projects compendium
The Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (Mitc) is set to release the third edition of the project compendium, a booklet that outlines potential projects, both domestic and external investments can invest in.
Mitc chief executive officer Clement Kumbemba told Business Review that the compilation of the new project compendium has been prompted by the fact that a considerable number of projects contained in the previous compendiums have been taken up by investors and are at various stages of implementation.
He said: “We are working to produce the third edition of the editions which will be out before December ends. This will have updated projects. What is more pleasing is that these days we are working on projects that are ready in terms of documentation because in the past we saw overwhelming expression of interest but from our side the projects were not ready and needed some documentation, I am happy to report that most of the projects that we will be lining up now will have all necessary documentation in place.”
Among other areas Kumbemba said there is a lot interest in hotel projects and investors are looking at available land and financing models while others are looking for investment guarantees.
He explained that there have been success stories registered for instance In the energy sector where a number of projects have been taken and investors are working on the ground.
However, Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) president Chikumbutso Kalilombe opined that there has been no significant progress because of the prevalence of structural investment challenges.
He said: “We haven’t made much progress as we would wanted because of other challenges that we have like structural challenges and unfortunately power counts as one of the biggest challenges for investment”.
Kalilombe that as the Mitc is looking at new projects in the coming compendium, it will be important to appreciate which projects have been taken up because lessons can be learnt from what happened with earlier projects and come up with new approaches.
