China’s transformation from a predominantly poor country into an economic powerhouse is the kind of story that naturally raises a question for Malawi: if China managed to move hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, what is stopping Malawi from doing the same?
That is the question Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Ben Malunga Phiri appears to have taken to China, where he is attending a month-long ministerial study tour.
Speaking at Peking University, Phiri argued that developing countries such as Malawi should study how China used its land and people to change its economic fortunes.
There is evidence that China’s experience offers lessons worth examining. The World Bank says China’s reform and opening-up period, which began in 1978, was followed by average annual GDP growth of more than 9 percent and lifted almost 800 million people out of extreme poverty.
Its poverty reduction was driven not by one programme, but by economic transformation, investment in infrastructure, education, market reforms and targeted support for poorer communities.
That is where Phiri’s argument about Malawi’s people becomes important. Malawi has a large young population that could become an economic asset if it is equipped with the skills, jobs and productive opportunities needed to participate in the economy.
But the numbers also expose the size of the challenge. The World Bank says about 270,000 young people enter Malawi’s labour market every year, while only around 40,000 formal jobs are being created.
The economy grew by just 1.9 percent in 2025, below population growth, contributing to a fourth consecutive year of declining GDP per capita.
So Malawi does not simply have a youth advantage. It has a youth-employment problem. A large population becomes a dividend only when people are healthy, educated, skilled and productively employed.
Otherwise, the same demographic growth can increase pressure on jobs, public services and household incomes.
This is one of the reasons China’s experience cannot simply be copied and pasted onto Malawi.
China’s transformation took place over decades and was accompanied by major economic reforms, rapid industrialisation, huge infrastructure investment and integration into global markets.
The World Bank describes China’s poverty reduction primarily as a story of economic growth and structural transformation rather than simply the distribution of resources.
Malawi faces a different starting point. Agriculture remains central to livelihoods, while the country continues to struggle with low productivity, foreign-exchange shortages, inflation, debt pressures and limited private investment.
The IMF says Malawi’s potential growth has fallen substantially over time and that growth around three percent would still be insufficient to lift people out of poverty when population growth is around 2.6 percent.
Land, therefore, may be another part of the puzzle, but simply possessing land is not the same as turning it into wealth. Malawi’s economy remains heavily dependent on agriculture, much of it vulnerable to weather shocks.
The World Bank says agriculture employs more than 80 percent of the population and remains exposed to climatic shocks.
The question is what Malawi does with that land. Can farmers move from producing mainly for household consumption into commercially viable agriculture?
Can agricultural production feed factories? Can those factories create jobs? Can better roads, electricity, irrigation and markets connect rural producers to consumers at home and abroad?
There are reasons not to dismiss the possibility. Malawi’s development strategy already identifies commercial agriculture, industrialisation and urbanisation as central pillars of Malawi 2063.
More recently, the World Bank has identified mining, tourism and mango production as sectors where reforms could potentially unlock more than 100,000 jobs and attract private investment.
But the biggest lesson from China may not be that Malawi should become China. It may be that poverty does not disappear simply because a country has land, people or natural resources.
Those assets have to be connected to productive economic activity through institutions, investment, infrastructure, skills and policies that can be sustained over time.
Phiri also pointed to Usisya in Nkhata Bay as an example of Malawi’s untapped tourism potential. The challenge is turning such potential into businesses, jobs and income for communities, not simply identifying beautiful places that could attract tourists.
China’s experience therefore presents Malawi with both an opportunity and a warning. The opportunity is that a poor country is not permanently condemned to remain poor. The warning is that transformation requires much more than admiration of another country’s achievements.
Malawi already has the land and the people Phiri talks about. What remains harder is building the economic system capable of turning those resources into productivity, businesses, jobs and rising household incomes.
China escaped poverty through a long process of transformation. Malawi’s question is not whether it can become China, but whether it can learn from what worked there while confronting the very different obstacles standing in its own way.
That is the question Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Ben Malunga Phiri appears to have taken to China, where he is attending a month-long ministerial study tour.
Speaking at Peking University, Phiri argued that developing countries such as Malawi should study how China used its land and people to change its economic fortunes.
There is evidence that China’s experience offers lessons worth examining. The World Bank says China’s reform and opening-up period, which began in 1978, was followed by average annual GDP growth of more than 9 percent and lifted almost 800 million people out of extreme poverty.
Its poverty reduction was driven not by one programme, but by economic transformation, investment in infrastructure, education, market reforms and targeted support for poorer communities.
That is where Phiri’s argument about Malawi’s people becomes important. Malawi has a large young population that could become an economic asset if it is equipped with the skills, jobs and productive opportunities needed to participate in the economy.
But the numbers also expose the size of the challenge. The World Bank says about 270,000 young people enter Malawi’s labour market every year, while only around 40,000 formal jobs are being created.
The economy grew by just 1.9 percent in 2025, below population growth, contributing to a fourth consecutive year of declining GDP per capita.
So Malawi does not simply have a youth advantage. It has a youth-employment problem. A large population becomes a dividend only when people are healthy, educated, skilled and productively employed.
Otherwise, the same demographic growth can increase pressure on jobs, public services and household incomes.
This is one of the reasons China’s experience cannot simply be copied and pasted onto Malawi.
China’s transformation took place over decades and was accompanied by major economic reforms, rapid industrialisation, huge infrastructure investment and integration into global markets.
The World Bank describes China’s poverty reduction primarily as a story of economic growth and structural transformation rather than simply the distribution of resources.
Malawi faces a different starting point. Agriculture remains central to livelihoods, while the country continues to struggle with low productivity, foreign-exchange shortages, inflation, debt pressures and limited private investment.
The IMF says Malawi’s potential growth has fallen substantially over time and that growth around three percent would still be insufficient to lift people out of poverty when population growth is around 2.6 percent.
Land, therefore, may be another part of the puzzle, but simply possessing land is not the same as turning it into wealth. Malawi’s economy remains heavily dependent on agriculture, much of it vulnerable to weather shocks.
The World Bank says agriculture employs more than 80 percent of the population and remains exposed to climatic shocks.
The question is what Malawi does with that land. Can farmers move from producing mainly for household consumption into commercially viable agriculture?
Can agricultural production feed factories? Can those factories create jobs? Can better roads, electricity, irrigation and markets connect rural producers to consumers at home and abroad?
There are reasons not to dismiss the possibility. Malawi’s development strategy already identifies commercial agriculture, industrialisation and urbanisation as central pillars of Malawi 2063.
More recently, the World Bank has identified mining, tourism and mango production as sectors where reforms could potentially unlock more than 100,000 jobs and attract private investment.
But the biggest lesson from China may not be that Malawi should become China. It may be that poverty does not disappear simply because a country has land, people or natural resources.
Those assets have to be connected to productive economic activity through institutions, investment, infrastructure, skills and policies that can be sustained over time.
Phiri also pointed to Usisya in Nkhata Bay as an example of Malawi’s untapped tourism potential. The challenge is turning such potential into businesses, jobs and income for communities, not simply identifying beautiful places that could attract tourists.
China’s experience therefore presents Malawi with both an opportunity and a warning. The opportunity is that a poor country is not permanently condemned to remain poor. The warning is that transformation requires much more than admiration of another country’s achievements.
Malawi already has the land and the people Phiri talks about. What remains harder is building the economic system capable of turning those resources into productivity, businesses, jobs and rising household incomes.
China escaped poverty through a long process of transformation. Malawi’s question is not whether it can become China, but whether it can learn from what worked there while confronting the very different obstacles standing in its own way.
