Our Comments on Magufuli's visit to Malawi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt6zrkoOJtsMagafuli talked about key economic issues - the Mtwara port, the improvements at Dar port and the Songwe border post. Shame that we as a landlocked country should be told by others about the need for access to new ports.
We have failed to understand and exploit our strategic position in the new transport re-ordering as access to Asia becomes an important preoccupation. Malawi runs South-North to the East of Zambia, DRC, parts of Mozambique and even Zimbabwe which is building an extension of its railroad to join the Nacala route about which we have been so passive. We could exploit our strategic position to connect these countries through Malawi Making Nkhata Bay and Liwonde important nodes for the region. The multiple routes would also reduce our vulnerable and make our road-connected rather land-locked image a credible one.
We have been holding up the Songwe border for five years!. We have been slow in finding funds that would connect Zambia to Nkhata Bay-Mbamba Bay-Mtwara route although this would be an easy project to fund. Both the Songwe and Nkahta Bay have received financial support but it would seem Malawi is the reluctant or inefficient partner in all this. And it could easily fit into the China One Belt One Road.
Our host had quite precisely identified the issues to discuss. We had nothing to say about any of these things. Instead, we worried about illegal migration which is probably not anybody/s mind in the region, especially when the main talking point is the ease of mobility in Africa. It was so embarrassing.
We obviously had no economic issues to talk about. Our preoccupation was electoral.
What a waste of opportunity once again. And we wonder why we are so poor.
