The National Planning Commission (NPC) has today released the Malawi 2063 First 10-Year Implementation Plan (MIP-1) Annual Progress Report 2023/2024 in which it has outlined progress and challenges the country has registered in the implementation of the Malawi 2063 national vision through its implementation plan for the first 10 years of its lifespan.
The report shows that while implementation of the MIP-1 has improved to 44 percent of planned intervention from 20 percent in the 2022/2023 financial year, overall progress remains below target due to exogenous shocks, unsustainable public debt, low capacity and sheer negligence among some implementers, both in and outside government.
“Sometimes we are just too slow to make a decision and to provide a service. And its that slowness that breeds corruption because somebody has to find a way of getting that service faster. And some investors have relocated to other countries because decision making in some critical services takes forever,” lamented Munthali.
He said Malawi needs to adopt a business unusual approach to change the narrative, including prioritization of manufacturing in addition to agriculture, tourism and mining so that the country starts creating wealth and increase resources for development as well as creation a buffer from which it can tap recovery resources in times of crisis.
“The difference between Malawi and other countries is not that those countries are not affected by exogenous shocks. The other countries are just more ready to face the shocks while we are not,” he said.
He has since explained that if the country is to graduate to a middle-income status by 2030 as planned under the MIP-1, it has to start growing its economy at around 10.3 percent per annum, up from around 2 percent currently being registered and 6 percent as targeted under MIP-1.
“If we continue growing at current rates, we’ll graduate to middle income by 2045 and if we increase growth to 6 percent as planned under MIP-1, we’ll become a middle-income country by 2036,” warned Munthali.
Speaking earlier, NPC Board Chairperson Professor Richard Mkandawire said the MIP-1 Annual Progress Report report provides a platform to celebrate the successes the country has achieved while igniting the dialogue on how to troubleshoot the bottlenecks that have affected progress of other interventions.
“As we reflect on our progress, there are key questions we have to answer: What have we done? What have we achieved? How can we improve? Each of us should honestly answer to: what have I done to make Malawi an inclusive wealthy and self-reliant nation,” said Mkandawire.
