Malawi Trade Policy Under Review

Ministry of Industry and Trade is championing a review of the country’s trade policy as one way of helping the country improve competitiveness internationally.
The ministry is undertaking the exercise with financial and technical support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Ministry of Industry and Trade spokesperson Wiskes Nkombezi said the last time the policy was done was in 1998 and that since then, trade and economic landscape has tremendously changed.
He said government would like to bring the policy into tandem with the economic environment of today.
“This w ll help to reflect the aspirations of the Malawian economy in respect of trade’s contribution to economic growth and development, ” said Nkombezi.
“We cannot continue with a policy of 1998 in this era and still hope that we can adequately and efficiently respond to today’s t rade and economic issues,” he added.
Nkombezi said there is need to update the policy so as to make it relevant to modern issues as the country strives to support and facilitate private sector development.
“We want to make Malawi a competitive economy capable of creating and sustaining comparative advantage in domestic and international markets and to support the effective participation of Malawians in all economic sectors,” said Nkombezi.
He said, among other things, the government would like to detach the trade policy from industrial policy enhance its effectiveness.
“Were realise that industrial policies and trade policies, are not supposed to be one policy as was the case be for e when we had the Integrated Trade and Industry Policy. So we will have separate policies on trade and industry,” he said.
(BNLTimes)