By Eric Chiputula:
President Lazarus Chakwera has stressed on the need for strong legislations that would safeguard the country’s natural resources from exploitation.
Chakwera was speaking at Kamuzu International Airport on arrival from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where he was attending the 42nd summit of the SADC Heads of State and Government.
Addressing members of the Press, Chakwera said following the summit, where among other things delegates discussed possible ways on how to end exploitation of mineral resources within the SADC region, there is need now for Malawi to domesticate resolutions made at the summit.
“We need to start asking what is it that Malawi will do because each country really needs to put its house in order so that as a region we could say these are the measures we want to take by putting proper legislation and proper policies in place to ensure that we do proper trade,” said Chakwera.
Chakwera observed that the extractives industry has huge potential of helping the country to be where it is supposed to be with good road infrastructure network, proper schools and hospitals so that the country is not always looked at as beggars.
However for this to be achieved, Chakwera has suggested the need for proper coordination among countries within the SADC region so that no country is used to defraud another country.
Meanwhile Chakwera’s return has been fast tracked with at least 24 hours as initially the President was scheduled to arrive back in the country on Friday.
At the summit Chakwera handed over the SDAC Chairmanship to DRC President Felix Tshisekedi.
He also held bilateral talks with his Zambian counterpart Hekainde Hichilema.
This year’s SADC Summit was held under the theme; “Promoting industrialisation through Agro- processing, mineral Beneficiation, and Regional value chains for inclusive and Resilient Economic Growth”.
