* China was supposed to help us with offices for the Members of Parliament as well as members of staff
* We want chairpersons of various parliamentary committees and commissioners to have their own offices where they can operate from and engage with the public
By Sellah Singini, MANA
Speaker of Parliament, Catherine Gotani Hara has appealed to the government of China to complete the second phase of the parliament project, which includes the completion of offices at the parliament premises in Lilongwe.
Advertisement
She made the appeal on Tuesday when vice-chairperson of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress of China, Cai Dafeng — together with his 15-member delegation — visited Parliament where they held bilateral talks with the Malawian Speaker and her team.
Hara said the completion of the parliament building was the first phase of the project and now they are looking forward to the completion of the second phase as agreed at the time.
“In terms of the second phase, China was supposed to help us with offices for the Members of Parliament as well as members of staff,” she said. “We want chairpersons of various parliamentary committees and commissioners to have their own offices where they can operate from and engage with the public.
“So we are appealing to the government of China to help us with phase two of the agreement. We also want China to continue supporting us on trade so that our country can become economically independent.
“As such, we want China to continue buying tobacco and soya from us, as this will definitely benefit the people that we represent.”
Hara observed that the visit by the Chinese delegation is crucial in strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries and she thanked Cai Dafeng for honoring the invitation, saying the exchange visits will provide an opportunity where Malawi will learn the magic China played for them to move from being a poor country to becoming one of the richest in the world.
On his part, Cai Dafeng assured the Malawian Speaker that he will present to his government the issues raised to him during the meeting such as the completion of the second phase of the parliament project.
He assured Malawians that his government will continue buying tobacco and soya from Malawi so as to uplift the lives of Malawians.
The visit by the delegation from China’s National People’s Congress is part of exchange visits between the two countries parliaments aimed at strengthening the relationship and during the visit, China donated 60 desktop computers and 16 laptops to the Malawi Parliament secretariat.
Advertisement