President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera says time has come for Malawi to put in place proper policies and legislation to guard it’s natural resources from exploitation.
Speaking to journalists at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) Thursday on his arrival from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where he attended the 42nd Ordinary Summit of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) meeting, Chakwera said only if we’ll regulated, the extractive industry has the potential to massively contribute to the development of the country.
President Chakwera on arrival at Kamuzu International Airport in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe from SADC meet in Democratic Republic of Congo.
The erstwhile SADC chair said the legislation should prioritize Malawians as main beneficiaries of the natural treasures.
On this point, the president emphasized that SADC countries should strive for similar legislation so that no country will be used by others to defraud another country.
“Each country needs to really put their house in order so that as a region then we can say those are the measures we want to take. Put proper legislation in place, put proper policies in place making sure that we do fair trade,” added Chakwera.
“The extractive industry is one that can help all of us to build the roads we want, the schools we want, hospitals we want so that we are not always looked at as beggars.
the sufficient riches that we are endowed with can help us on that developmental path but we will need then to coordinate so that we have legislation that is similar that no country will be used by others even within the region to defraud another country.”
Mining operations in Africa and Malawi in particular, have generated big profits for foreign companies with very little local benefit.
