Malawi, China sign design contracts for two projects

Malawi and its newly-found friend, the People’s Republic of China, have signed design contracts for the Karonga-Chitipa road in northern Malawi and the New Parliament Building situated in the capital city – projects that were abandoned by a Taiwanese contractor following the cutting of ties between Lilongwe and Taipei in December 2007, APA learnt here Tuesday.

The two projects will cost the Chinese Government over US$100 million in a period of two years.

Speaking during the signing ceremony in Lilongwe, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Housing, Francis Chinsinga said the development was a milestone since it would enable contractors to proceed with their work that was halted long time ago.

“As government, we are now able to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel since these contractors will soon start their work on the two abandoned sites,” he said.

He therefore appealed to the Chinese government to start implementing the actual construction on the ground while other designing processes were still going on.

He said the fact that people in the country for a long time have been expecting to see the Karonga-Chitipa road functioning, "I want to ask your government to start implementing the actual construction while the designing is still in the process."

The Chinese Ambassador to Malawi, Lin Songtian, said the design contracts would help the architectural designers to start their work on the two sites.

On the Parliament building site, he said, the architects would not re-design the site but would merely examine view the foundation and see what the former contractor did on the architecturally before taking it over.

“The process in the parliament building site needs to be followed step by step but we will try our best to help this country fulfill its goals,” he added.