Government has commended India for the provision of India Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC), saying the initiative is supporting and promoting Malawians through technical skills.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eisenhower Mkaka made the statement at ITEC 15 celebration Day on Wednesday at the High Commission of India in Lilongwe.
Mkaka noted that scholars who are selected for the program do not come from urban areas but from the rural and hard to reach areas.
He added that for the country to build capacity building there is a need to partner with improved countries and India will be of help because it managed to move from a least developed country to a developed one.
“What we are saying is that in whatever role they can play in making sure that there is capacity building, they are welcome. Programs that India is having for higher learning are those similar with ours. As such the request could be, lets expand this so that we get more and more people into the program,” explained
On his part, High Commissioner of India, Gopala Krishnan, said ITEC offers unique training courses for both civilian and defence personnel in different centres of excellence in India.
Krishnan added that the aim of the program is to enhance India development cooperation with countries and the training programs under ITEC have contributed significantly towards capacity building and human resources development of their friendly countries in many parts of the world.
“Under ITEC training program, Government of India offers over 130 slots to Malawian citizens every year. Since 2007, over 800 Malawian nationals have availed short and medium terms courses in India under the program,” he said.
The ITEC program that offers defense personnel skills has over 50 empaneled Institutions conducting about 300 short, medium and long-term courses every year in a wide and diverse range of skills and disciplines.
Every year more than 15,000 training slots are offered to more than 160 partner countries including Malawi.
