President Lazarus Chakwera says Malawi’s development partners must have development projects such as roads, prisons and schools which they are supporting rather than only supporting social programs whose sustainability cannot be guaranteed.
Chakwera made the remarks today in Dowa during the launch of rehabilitation of a 302-kilometre stretch of the M1 Road from Lumbadzi in Lilongwe to Chiweta in Rumphi funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
He noted that European Union (EU) through EIB has funded the project with over 100 million Euros which he described as a real lifeline for Malawi.
He said Malawi’s partnership with EU is a model of the partnerships the country is interested in. Chakwera argued that there is no sense for Malawi to have development partners who cannot point to any single project that they are implementing or have supported.
“If you are a development partner, your partnership must have ongoing development projects to show for it. It is not enough to just support social programs whose sustainability cannot be guaranteed when what our country needs desperately are development projects that will last a generation or generations such as roads, bridges, prisons, schools, institutional buildings, sports facilities and border posts,” said Chakwera.
He then urged development to be part of the new Malawi and get some of these projects done by partnering with the government.
On the M1 Road, Chakwera noted that the road is a trade route that connects Malawi – not only to Mozambique and Tanzania – but also East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) regions.
He added that the road is key for it anchors a national economic ecosystem through mobility of goods and people and it also carries with it a significant role of facilitating trade growth, food security and access to essential social services.
“We will see an uptake in long distance transportation of imports and exports. We will see thousands of jobs created through implementation of the project. We will see a reduction in accidents and transportation costs incurred through wear and tear vehicles suffer due to bad roads. We will see other sectors thriving because of the ease of movement facilitated by this project,” said Chakwera.
He added that his government will continue constructing modern roads and other key infrastructure to spur economic transformation of our country.
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