Malawi President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera has pleaded with Malawians to trust him, as his Tonse Alliance administration seeks to find lasting solutions to the economic crisis facing the country.
The Malawian leader Dr. Chakwera was speaking on Friday during the official launch of the Private Sector Labs in Lilongwe.
President Chakwera said Malawians should trust him and endure the pain they are going through now, as he is undertaking a major “surgical operation” to root out the cause of the problems.
The President then called for collaboration between the public and private sector in steering the development of this country amidst the economic pains the country is going through.
“Now that we have been forced to face the pain of living in a diseased economy, we must abandon our fixation on pain killers and embrace the real curses for our economy,” the president said.
He said the delivery labs are working with focus on three key aspirations of food security, job creation and wealth creation.
Speaking earlier, Vice-President Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima urged Malawians to work together towards achieving MW2063 Vision for the country to attain the middle class economy.
“Only when the private and public sectors combine and work together will we achieve plenty, and we must appreciate why Parliament passed the Public, Private Sector Act 2022,” he said.
In his remarks, President of the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI), Lekani Kandulu, observed that there is need for taking steps towards achieving the desired results from the Private Sector Labs.
“We need to engage in export-oriented industries to generate foreign exchange and boost the growth of export-oriented businesses and engage in local production of various goods and services that will replace imports and create more jobs for our people and revenue,” he said.
Minister of Trade and Industry, Mark Katsonga Phiri, while hinting that 50 companies will be participating in these labs, observed that the Private Sector Labs will unlock many business opportunities, as such; advised companies to be vigilant in rendering specific issues that concern them.
“I appeal to the private sector to utilise the sitting of these labs to address specific issues for specific companies so that in the end, Malawians witness the fruits. Indeed, the Presidential Delivery Units should not be a place of mere talk but action and action,” the minister said.
The previous sitting of Delivery Lab Units in October to November, 2021, deepened its role by splitting the Delivery Labs into clusters of Agro industry transformation; investment, trade and food system transformation; digitization governance and human capital among others.
New Secretary to the President and Cabinet, who has been Head of Presidential Delivery Unit and Chief Advisor to the President on Sustainable Development Goals and International Affairs, Colleen Zamba, said the sitting at BICC is going on well, with hope of achieving the desired results.
“The main work of these Delivery Labs will be hinging on planning, prioritizing and performance managing which will lead into reaching a delivery line faster after working on identifying bottlenecks problem-solving,” she said.
President Chakwera initially launched the Presidential Delivery Labs at Capital Hill on October 18, 2021 with a major aim of delivering to Malawians in line with government promises to Malawians
I doubt it very much whether these same Malawians can confidently sit back and trust leadership which seem to grapple like a blind person or someone working in the dark. What is going on is merely playing with people’s minds; all these are what is termed as ‘SEMANTICS’. It is the same man who barely less than a year ago presided over the launch of the ‘Presidential Delivery Lab’ on 18th October 2021. On 17th June 2022 the same person boldly goes out again to launch more or less a similar thing now called the ‘Private sector Lab’ whose aims and objectives is the same as those he gave out just last October. All he did was to change the name of the launching event without any shame at all. This recent one he pointed out that he wants government to achieve –
a. Food Security
b. Job Creation
c. Wealth Creation
The question still stands – Are these not the same issues he set out to fo in his manifesto with his unproductive ‘Chakwera High 5’? So far since he assumed power which one amongst his 5 dreams has been fulfilled? Now how do you expect people to trust you when all you’re doing is repetitively singing the same tune?
If he needs a reminder, a couple of days ago a workshop was convened whereby Economists and other people qualified in different fields were brainstorming with an aim of resuscitation the ailing economy. Most of those speakers were pointing at lack of leadership as the main malaise. The points raised have been in circulation for decades when people begun talking of the 2020 goals. Here we are in 2022 and nothing has been achieved and we are still sitting down to continue procrastinating. These text book management knowledge will not help at all. You expect to produce and deliver as a country without structures necessitating production on the ground ie electricity, willing manpower, conducive financial backup, good bank interest rates, export incentives etc etc. Instead of planning about production we are busy globetrotting with a begging bowl throughout the whole world, whose proceeds will unfortunately end up in certain individuals pockets and bank accounts. If there is no fiscal discipline exercised by leadership nothing will take off. Leadership is meant to be achieved through good examples, and indeed the right advice with proper timelines and followup mechanisms. But if you sit down phwiii!! and you think the country will run on its own without supervision, the the end result will be chaos as experienced. As such trust is eroded and nobody will tell people to distrust you or underrate your being. You basically paint your ownself with a performance gauging brush based on output and delivery. Dead head will mean dead body because the head is supposed to be the “Engine Room”.