* Chakwera received enormous support in Berlin for his vision that calls for concerted efforts around sustainable investments
* In priority areas of agriculture, tourism and mining, under what is termed as the ATM Strategy
* Many of the investors he met are willing to get involved in agriculture and tourism as well as in the mining investments in Malawi
Wrap up by Abel Ikiloni, MANA
On his return from his tour of Italy and Germany, President Lazarus Chakwera has promised the country to expect significant benefits from a number of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed there in trade, democracy, energy, natural disasters and disease outbreaks.
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Before going to Europe, the President traveled to Mozambique where some developmental MoUs were also signed between the two countries as well as attending the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Summit in Harare, Zimbabwe.
In Rome, he met Pope Francis where he discussed a number of issues as well as visiting St. Egidio which he said is instrumental in helping the youths and development.
Overall, Chakwera described the visits as a great advantage to Malawi as he had the chance to meet the President of Germany and signed a number of MoUs and he concluded his official visit to Germany on Saturday where he held discussions with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on a number of issues aimed at strengthening bilateral relations between Malawi and Germany which have been in existence for 60 years.
The two leaders agreed to sustain and strengthen the ties especially now, when Malawi has refreshed its development agenda with the adoption of the MW2063 national vision.
Chakwera said he took the opportunity to invite President Steinmeier, who was elected on February 12, 2017 and currently serving his second five-year term, to visit Malawi.
Chakwera witnessed the signing of an agreement on issues of water transport and solar power investment after he met private investors in Frankfurt under the Chambers of Commence.
Chakwera received enormous support in Berlin for his vision that calls for concerted efforts around sustainable investments in priority areas of agriculture, tourism and mining, under what is termed as the ATM Strategy.
He said many of the investors he met are willing to get involved in agriculture and tourism as well as in the mining investments in Malawi.
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On Thursday, the President witnessed the signing of an MoU between Malawi and Re-Thinking Foundation for a 50 megawatt solar farm project between Mzuzu University (MZUNI) and Berlin’s Tauber Solar, which he described as a great milestone in the energy sector.
In the MoU, the Ministry of Energy, Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO), MZUNI and Germany company, Sun Power Africa Limited, will develop the solar park in Malawi — in line with Chakwera’s emphasis that was made early this year of adding more power to the national grid.
Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola said the MoU will see MZUNI students studying engineering and electrical doing practical work and exchange of programs.
Tauber Solar Group’s shareholder & chief executive officer, Zeno Fleck said the project is a great business investment for the people of Malawi as it will create employment.
“We will start the project immediately,” he said. “We made the visibility study and in the next four weeks the project will start. It is a huge project which will need about 100 people from the beginning and we are investing about €70 million.”
On his part, MZUNI Vice-Chancellor, Professor Wales Singini expressed his excitement, saying his institution has an idea of taking part in the energy sector through development of its solar farm at Choma.
“Our initial idea was that we should be able to provide a platform for our students to learn practically in terms of how to deal with renewable energy systems but at the same time, as a university, we should also be able to generate some resources to support our functionality,” he said.
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He added that the university took the idea seriously by working through all processes such as the visibility study and all what is required after getting permission from the Minister of Energy.
“We were given the go ahead to engage ESCOM for the possibility of obtaining power purchase agreement and we have reached an advanced stage,” he said.
In health, Chakwera engaged in fruitful discussions with leadership of Lubeck University in Berlin where he lobbied for capacity building in the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases, which he said is key to building sustainable communities.
Lübeck University Clinic have since expressed interest to help the country through specialised training of nurses, taking cognizance that currently, Malawi has one specialised nurse in dialysis while the rest are trained as general nurses.
The government is currently training another lot of specialised nurses in few programmes offered at Kamuzu University of Health and Sciences (KUHES).
In addressing this gap, Lübeck University Clinic — which is a leading research university situated in Northern Germany — intends to build and enhance collaboration so that most nurses are equipped in non-communicable diseases.
Head of delegation of Lubeck University, Prof. Kristina Kusche-Vihrog said they are geared to help Malawi adopt new systems and technologies towards a healthier society.
“We are geared and committed to helping Malawi build on its capacity and adopt new technologies in overcoming challenges in the medical field,” she said.
The development aligns with the Malawi’s health sector strategic plan that promotes specialisation of the nursing profession for effective service delivery among other requirements.—Editing by Maravi Express
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