We are wasting China’s current goodwill

I don’t know about you, but I feel Malawi is failing to put China’s current goodwill to good use. One day, not far from today, we will regret the Chinese goodwill we failed to exploit intelligently. We will weep over our lost opportunity, at the same, burning with envy at our neighbours who utilised China’s goodwill.

Look, I came to such a conclusion last Wednesday, after reading a story in The Daily Times. The story quoted a Cabinet Minister expressing surprise with China’s plans to construct a railway line from Chitipa to Nsanje.

Yes, here is a nation, situated thousands of kilometres away, thinking strategic for us. And we, the owners, do not even have a slight idea of it because we are busy constructing boreholes. All we can manage is to get surprised, yes surprised, at how strategic some people think for us. Really?

Of course, our government can have an answer to that. They will say the railway line is not included in the Investors Compendium. But, one would ask, why did our planners miss such a great plan in the compendium?

Look, China, today, is not an economic joke like us. In the past 20 years or so, this great nation of about 1.4 billion people has moved itself from the poverty that, 51 years after independence, we are failing to conquer.

What China wants, now, is to be a global economic giant. To achieve that, China understands the importance of building partnerships based on mutual benefits—raw materials and markets. Africa, still with its untapped natural resources, is China’s target. That is why, with each passing year, China’s trade and investment in Africa continues to rise.

Now, here is what is critical with China and Africa’s romance: China knows what it wants from Africa, but does Africa know what it wants from China?

In the decade that China has been in Africa, African countries have benefited differently. The scale of these benefits, I should underline, have been determined by the capacity of host governments to define what they want from China.

In the eight years or so that China has been in Malawi, I have seen, read and experienced tremendous large scale Chinese investments in agriculture, transport, energy and infrastructure in different African countries apart from Malawi.

In Zambia, China has invested heavily in constructing vast road networks that have changed the face of Lusaka, their capital. In Uganda, China has invested hugely in solar energy and vast dams for harvesting water. In Kenya, China has invested heavily in transport, as well, constructing, just like in Zambia, modern road networks that have changed the face of Nairobi, the capital.

Now, let us come back to Malawi. In the past eight years or so, it is only the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) and the Karonga-Chitipa Road that one could, at least, point as strategic investments from China.

I am not against the construction of the Five-Star Hotel, the presidential villas, the stadium and the Parliament building. But when critical areas like Greenbelt—something which can change the development face of Malawi—remain underfunded, does it make sense to be getting loans for constructing five-star hotels, Parliament buildings and stadiums?

If the loans that went to the stadium, five-star hotel and Parliament were all directed to roll out the Greenbelt Initiative, we could have created many jobs today and, again, we could not have been talking of 2.8 million people going hungry in the next consumption season. In fact, we could not have been talking of a cash-strapped government which, after investing billions in a good-for-nothing Farm Input Subsidy Progamme (Fisp), is now looking for more billions to buy maize from neighbours to feed the same people it subsidised with Fisp. If this is not rubbish, then what is it?

I am sure the decision by China to plan the railway line for us underlines its pity on our cyclic failure to think strategically as a country. In that decision, I am sure, China is saying: ‘Hey Malawians, can you, for once, borrow a leaf from how your friends are putting our money into productive investments?”

I don’t think China will remain as smooth as it is now. Its goodwill will, one day, slip away. We need to seize this moment and challenge China to help us by putting its money in productive investment.

I do not think we can fail, with our own money, to build hotels, stadiums and parliaments. But I know it is tough, with our thin national wallet, to kick-start productive sectors such as the greenbelt or connecting the entire country with a rail line. We need China’s hand in these important sectors. Not in stadiums and presidential villas. Otherwise, we are wasting China’s current goodwill. Thanks.