By Staff Reporter

Mtambo continues to defy the odds in leading the struggle and pursuit for a better Malawi. While many would only expect Mtambo to talk about peaceful coexistence, national unity and demonstrations as these directly fall under the Ministry of National Unity, has challenged Malawians to consider extremely cutting down on unnecessary imports in order to reduce on the negative trade balance Malawi has been suffering from for the past five plus decades.

Mtambo was speaking on Saturday evening at Capitol Hotel where he was a guest of honor at Product Magazine 2022 edition launch. The event was organised by Product Magazine in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Malawi Export Promotion to award the best local product exporters to international markets. Mtambo said both the event and participants were the champions of the Malawi Export Strategy which is key to the Mw2063 as recently launched by Chakwera.

“This is killing our industry, creating a forex shortage and suffocating the economy. Why do we like importing everything and anything, including what we could locally produce even cheaper and at a much better quality?” retorted Mtambo. “Malawi is a nation nearing extinction if we can’t feed our own people; if we can’t produce more than what we consume, if our trade balance remains negative, if we can’t generate enough forex to sustain our demand,” warned Mtambo.

“When I had heard of the ‘Buy Malawi Campaign’ I felt this was the moment for Malawi’s economic and industrial revolution, but now I know the campaign alone is not enough,” Mtambo said. He said that Malawians need a change of mindset to overhaul this deeply entrenched inferiority complex that compels most to think that everything from outside Malawi is better.

Mtambo reported that his Ministry runs the Pabwalo Citizen Engagement program which aims at bringing people closer to the Government and vice versa. He committed to engaging all stakeholders through this program in order to inculcate mindset change among the citizenry, which is a crucial enabler for the Mw2063. The Ministry for National Unity and Civic Education was mandated to implement this crucial pillar in the development agenda.

“Let me ask our business colleagues who import everything even toothpicks, brooms, cane chairs, sofa sets, school uniforms, mangoes, potatoes, vegetables and many more to consider taking advantage of the Malawian industry and supply chain,” Mtambo pleaded. He further said Malawi must import petroleum products because there are no oil wells, but agriculture products must be cultivated locally, processed and even exported instead of importing.

The Minister has highly commended the event organizer, for putting Malawian business owners and their products on the international market map through the Product Magazine, a local private organisation, which promotes products not only from Malawi and SADC region but also beyond. “This is what it will take in order for Malawi to create global competitive business advantages,” Mtambo reiterated. The organizers also expressed gratitude for the Government’s support to the Product Magazine and all business participants to the competition.

Though majority citizens welcome the idea to extremely cut down on imports, some members of the society have received this demand with reservations, citing poor quality and desire for status symbol as reasons for importing what could already be locally produced.