The Honourable Members of Parliament are meeting mainly to discus the 2015/2016 fiscal plan. As a Trade Expert am interested in trade related aspects of the budget.
There is need that key sectors being affected by international trade, particularly where exports are declining be budgeted for problem analysis: should we negotiate for markets, should we promote our products, should we look for investros in the sector, is it dumping, subsidies affecting competition against us, is it trade facilitation issues and challenges, is it lack of skills, quality issues or what?
What we have noticed in the past years is allocation that caters for salaries and consumables. Period. The actual allocation to the Ministry of Industry and Trade is even much much lower. Of course, its not deliberate but the national purse is to small to share among ourselves according to our needs.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
XENOPHOBIA
As per what we have heard from South Africa it means poor local black people killing poor fellow black foreigners. What a Shameeeeeeee! Disgusting and primitive. Its the final reaction of a greedy squad.
I say sorry to you all victims. Use your experiences to build Malawi and make a living out of it. May God be with you. Amen!
I say sorry to you all victims. Use your experiences to build Malawi and make a living out of it. May God be with you. Amen!
WTO TRADE FACILITATION AGREEMENT
Least Developed Countries have welcomed the WTO Bali TFA. It will help to unlock some deliberate government created bottle necks. Not that government plan to have these bottle necks but that they are not doing enough to improve them on their own. My experience would tell me that these existing bottlenecks are human other institutional plants. The employees get rewards from companies or individuals who are in haste by playing facilitator.
I welcome TFA target of borders and system efficiency and/or re-engineering. Like the National Single Window. This will be hugely welcome to MSMEs who pay too much handouts to cross the border. Poor brothers and sisters! Lets hope things will change particularly at the borders. It a shame whenever I visit border posts I see a group of cruelly police officers off main processing offices coercing individuals with loaded bicycles to give them money. The consequences have been either the cross border will not make profits(which is always not much after all) or will never come back to buy from the other side of uniformed 'beggars'.
Am part of planning and implementing the TFA in my country, I can't wait to start measuring the success of it or challenges.
The sad part is that we can hardly finance our ambition from local treasury office. Thank you donors and potential donor partners
I welcome TFA target of borders and system efficiency and/or re-engineering. Like the National Single Window. This will be hugely welcome to MSMEs who pay too much handouts to cross the border. Poor brothers and sisters! Lets hope things will change particularly at the borders. It a shame whenever I visit border posts I see a group of cruelly police officers off main processing offices coercing individuals with loaded bicycles to give them money. The consequences have been either the cross border will not make profits(which is always not much after all) or will never come back to buy from the other side of uniformed 'beggars'.
Am part of planning and implementing the TFA in my country, I can't wait to start measuring the success of it or challenges.
The sad part is that we can hardly finance our ambition from local treasury office. Thank you donors and potential donor partners
Monday, January 12, 2015
LEADERS ARE PLAYING WITH MALAWI'S ECONOMY
I have quietly observed economic developments the past two years. In one way or the other I have participated in developing policy recommendations to government as a technical person in areas of trade. What has actually come out from the cabinet or parliament is meager such that we should not see major positive changes soon. Which means medium term strategic plans spanning 2012-2017 are idle without much needed regulatory and policy changes.
Political leaders focus much of their energy on popularity. In Malawi popularity is not only based on performance, its source is political backing not performance. The new regime is however promising because it is listening and has initiated some radical reforms in the civil service. Let me also mention that the One Stop Shop at mitc to facilitate investments has received tremendous support from government.
Political leaders focus much of their energy on popularity. In Malawi popularity is not only based on performance, its source is political backing not performance. The new regime is however promising because it is listening and has initiated some radical reforms in the civil service. Let me also mention that the One Stop Shop at mitc to facilitate investments has received tremendous support from government.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)