By Chikumbutso Mtumodzi

Newly-appointed Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC), Colleen Zamba has said the upcoming ‘Private Sector Lab’ is critical to government’s objective of job creation because it will help oil the interface between government and the private sector towards the creation of a bustling private, which is the main engine for job creation and economic development.

SPC Zamba was speaking at Capital Hill in Lilongwe on Wednesday, June 15, when she made a presentation to various development partners, including Ambassadors and High Commissioners, on the importance of the Private Sector Lab.

The SPC disclosed a Private Sector Lab, which will be held under the auspices of the Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU), will be officially launched by President Lazarus Chakwera on Friday, June 17, 2022. It will run up until Friday, June 24, 2022.

According to the programme, main issues during the week-long Private Sector Lab shall include taxation, energy, forex and export, access to finance, land, e-visa and work permit, and investors.

She said the lab will identify specific project level issues that are hindering investment with the aim of unlocking investments, and at the same time enable the creation of jobs, increasing manufacturing and earning of forex.

Zamba added that the lab will also help foster collaboration between government Ministries and Departments (MDAs) so that they provide each other information and perspectives for better bilateral understanding.

“The Private Sector Lab is a platform to jumpstart action towards economic growth. This ‘Lab’ is an inclusive process for addressing difficult issues limiting investments required to deliver on Malawi’s economic growth and job-creation targets, which would largely be made possible by the private sector,” said Zamba, further explaining that among other things, the lab will focus on facilitating solutions for policy level and service delivery level issues; identify and facilitate the solving of policy level and service delivery level issues that are hindering private sector growth as well as facilitating sectoral solutioning sessions.

“The lab will also help solve project level issues to unlock investment and impact. It will also provide a platform for enabling collaboration and facilitate sectoral sessions for Non-MDA led discussions to co-create solutions that address some of the issues hindering private sector growth like the creation of a Project Development Facility in the access to finance work-stream,” added Zamba.

The SPC, who before her appointment to her new position was head of the Presidential Delivery Unit, said the process of the lab will include collaboration with Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (MITC), Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI), National Planning Commission (NPC), Ministry of Finance and the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) to organize labs and identify and prioritize high impact projects. It will also identify issues hindering progress and group issues requiring similar stakeholders for resolving, she said.

Added Zamba: “The lab will also schedule problem solving meetings with specific agenda; and convene all required stakeholders to find solutions as well as effect the solutions. It will also manage periodic and ad-hoc performance and reporting for each project and intervene where needed.”

Among the stakeholders that will be at the lab are the implementers of the solutions such as CEOs for private sector firms like those in the agro-processing industries, energy, and also key personnel at MDAs such as Principal Secretaries (PS).

President Chakwera launched the the Presidential Delivery Unit on October 18, 2021 as an extension of his office to ensure that government ministries, departments and agencies are implementing the key priorities that his administration promised to deliver for Malawians.

“If you are a private sector player and are facing political, or legislative, or administrative obstacles that are hindering the operations of your business sector, I urge you to report such obstacles to my Delivery Unit so that I can see to it that they are addressed with speed,” Chakwera said at the launch.

Zamba was appointed as SPC on May 31,2022. She did not take time to get down to business, and has since banned all lakeshore meetings and conferences by all MDAs as government engages an overdrive in austerity measures to cut spending.

President Chakwera has also cancelled scheduled trips to international conferences in Rwanda and Austria as part of the austerity measures. He has since designated Cabinet Ministers to attend the conferences on his behalf.