By Linda Kwanjana

Malawi President, Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, has expressed delight at the prospect of a revitalized Marine transport network, following investment plans that will see the country’s legacy vessel “The Illala”, being replaced with a more modern passenger / cargo vessel.

President Chakwera shared the sentiments on Monday, during a meeting with a delegation of German investors. consisting of business persons, at Chikoko Bay, Monkey Bay.

The meeting is a follow up to an interaction President Chakwera had with potential investors, when he visited Frankfurt, Germany in 2024 and explored various business opportunities to benefit the country.

Subsequent to these fruitful engagements, the delegation is now in the country to cement the discussions led by His Excellency, with a tour and assessment of various marine transport infrastructure.

The delegation had the opportunity to visit the Port of Chipoka in Salima, the Ship Yard and the Maritime Training College in Monkey Bay.

The Port in question is a multimodal set up connected to both rail and road but has not been operational due to siltation that ended up reducing the depth of water permissible for berthing of vessels.

Once reestablished Chipoka will be able to handle coal from the North to central and Southern parts of Malawi for manufacturing industries, further bolstering Malawi’s ATM strategy by facilitating transportation in the mining sector.

Critically the investors also inspected the Illala and appreciated its resilience  for over 70 years of service, with the view to promptly replacing it with a more innovative and current vessel.

The Illala is the only vessel offering a passenger service at present. To this end the investors have commenced works by requesting structural and architectural designs of the Illala and other vessels operating on lake Malawi; as well as a chart of the passenger and cargo routes in place, in order to map a viable reconstruction and replacement plan for the famous vessel.

In his remarks President Chakwera said he is happy that the investors have seen the challenges the maritime transport sector faces and have conceived solutions to these challenges.

“…Lake Malawi is not just a tourism attraction but a viable means to addressing some of Malawis economic challenges through effective transportation infrastructure, among other attributes….” Said Chakwera.

Leader of the delegation Daniel Imhauser said he is pleased with what he has seen thus far and recognized the breadth of potential for development that is evident from the structures he has seen, reiterating that the Illala needs to be replaced swiftly and that the German team is ready to do so.

Imhauser expressed that a team of 20 experts in Germany are keen to change the conversation whose genesis was Frankfurt Germany, to action here on the ground in Malawi, adding that the investors wish to offer training opportunities to indigenous Malawian maritime technical staff, in order to empower the Malawi workforce.

In his opening remarks, Min of Transport and Public Works, Hon. Jacob Hara also highlighted that the investors are prepared to also replace cruise vessels that would facilitate the tourism industry.

The investors also visited the Marine Training College – the only institution that trains seafarers and marine engineers in Malawi, where they appreciated need for the college to partner with German experts and training institutions to ease the challenges the college is facing in terms of IT support, learning materials, and modern training equipment and simulators.

President Chakwera has since tasked his government to finalize the administrative details of this venture in order to attest transforming the marine transport network and by extension work towards attaining the 2063 agenda which espouses self reliance among other things.

President Chakwera is currently in the Eastern Tegion where he carrying out a number of official engagements.

The German delegation is expected to leave the country on Saturday.