Malawi has put the privatisation of its state-owned airline on hold after failing to come to an agreement with the leading bidder, South Africa's Comair, Transport Minister Henry Mussa said on Monday.
Malawi, one of Africa's poorest nations, was considering selling off the financially struggling Air Malawi as part of a drive to lessen the government's financial burden in key sectors, including transport and telecommunications.
Comair, a partner of British Airways, emerged as the frontrunner to buy Air Malawi last year.
"We rejected their bid because they were interested in taking over the whole company while we were only looking for a strategic partner to help us run the company," Mussa told Reuters.
"We have decided to put the whole sale on hold until we have further consultation with other stakeholders."
Malawi's trade unions have criticised the government's privatisation campaign, arguing that previous sales of state assets have led to job losses and failed to make companies profitable.
The government, which decided to sell Air Malawi in 2000, said it is reevaluating its privatisation efforts.
Established in 1967, Air Malawi has two Boeing aircraft and one other plane. Its international routes include flights to London, Johannesburg and several other cities.
Monday, 28 January 2008
''Trade Capacity is Worse Despite Preferential Access''
Malawians still await the details of the impending economic partnership agreement (EPA) which their government is entering into with the European Union (EU).
Ten of the country’s most influential non-governmental (NGOs) have embarked on various initiatives to signal their grave concern about the implications of the EPA for Malawi.
The EPAs are a new set of deals aimed at creating a free trade area (FTA) between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
In April last year, five organisations wrote to EU president Angela Merkel arguing that the EPAs will not allow Malawi and other poor countries to protect their domestic industries with tariffs and other means.
In their latest statement, the NGOs feel ‘‘compelled to challenge the government in court for violating people’s rights’’ if Malawi goes ahead with the signing of the EPA.
The organisations are: the Malawi Economic Justice Network, ActionAid Malawi, Malawi Health Equity Network, Maphunziro Foundation, Manerela, the Institute for Policy Interaction, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, National Smallholders Farmers Association of Malawi, Youth and Children Shield, and the Joint Oxfam Programme in Malawi.
By signing the EPAs, the government of Malawi will be ‘‘tying the citizens into 25 years of acrimony’’, said the organisations.
The EPAs have been formulated in such a way that they will not benefit the people of Malawi nor add value to their ability to end poverty, said the organisations.
‘‘We alert the general public and civil society in Malawi not to fall for the intimidating and pressurising tactics that are being used by the EU to convince us that these EPAs are good for us,’’ the organisations declared.
According to the organisations, Malawi would need a capital injection of ‘‘a whooping 5.7 billion euros’’ to take care of supply-side constraints and other adjustment costs for the country to benefit from the proposed EPA trading framework.
‘‘Without such an injection, Malawi would remain the way it is -- with full exposure to the shocks that take place in the commodity market from time to time.’’
The NGOs pointed out that Malawi was party to the Lome’ convention, a trade arrangement that gave preferential treatment to ACP countries’s products between 1975 and 2000. However, during this period ‘‘our exports to the EU dwindled and supply-side constraints remain an issue for our industries.
‘‘What has changed to make us believe that these next 25 years with EPAs will be any different?’’ the NGOs asked.
Another contentious issue is that Malawi has been asked to liberalise 80 percent of all trade with the EU. The NGOs see it as an erosion of policy and developmental space.
The NGOs regard Malawi as a small and emerging economy with a lot of potential. History shows that for the EU to have reached its current scale of economic muscle it used a combination of policies aimed at boosting local production and protecting local industries against unfair foreign competition, said the organisations.
Malawi’s parliamentary committee on trade last month approved the signing of the interim framework agreement of the EPA. The temporary deal is aimed at averting disruption of trade between African countries and the EU, following the expiry of the Cotonou Agreement at the end of last year.
The signing of the EPA was initially slated for the end of last year but ministers from the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region, of which Malawi is part, said at the ESA-European Commission ministerial negotiating meeting in Brussels in November last year that it was not practical to do so.
In the meantime it has transpired that Malawi was due to sign an EPA on its own, leading the NGOs to say that Malawians are being misinformed as Malawi is not signing as part of a bloc of countries, as was originally envisaged.
The EPA will therefore put Malawi in direct competition with the EU at a time when Malawians are hopeful of rebuilding the jobs, industries and livelihoods that had been destroyed through that other imposed scheme, the World Bank’s structural adjustment programmes, according to the NGOs.
The government has not said much on the issue. Secretary for Trade Newby Kumwembe only said that the government was weighing up the options of the trade agreement before signing it.
‘‘We need to look at all outstanding issues and make a decision. We also need to look at how our products will be affected if we do not sign this deal,’’ said Kumwembe.
Ten of the country’s most influential non-governmental (NGOs) have embarked on various initiatives to signal their grave concern about the implications of the EPA for Malawi.
The EPAs are a new set of deals aimed at creating a free trade area (FTA) between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
In April last year, five organisations wrote to EU president Angela Merkel arguing that the EPAs will not allow Malawi and other poor countries to protect their domestic industries with tariffs and other means.
In their latest statement, the NGOs feel ‘‘compelled to challenge the government in court for violating people’s rights’’ if Malawi goes ahead with the signing of the EPA.
The organisations are: the Malawi Economic Justice Network, ActionAid Malawi, Malawi Health Equity Network, Maphunziro Foundation, Manerela, the Institute for Policy Interaction, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, National Smallholders Farmers Association of Malawi, Youth and Children Shield, and the Joint Oxfam Programme in Malawi.
By signing the EPAs, the government of Malawi will be ‘‘tying the citizens into 25 years of acrimony’’, said the organisations.
The EPAs have been formulated in such a way that they will not benefit the people of Malawi nor add value to their ability to end poverty, said the organisations.
‘‘We alert the general public and civil society in Malawi not to fall for the intimidating and pressurising tactics that are being used by the EU to convince us that these EPAs are good for us,’’ the organisations declared.
According to the organisations, Malawi would need a capital injection of ‘‘a whooping 5.7 billion euros’’ to take care of supply-side constraints and other adjustment costs for the country to benefit from the proposed EPA trading framework.
‘‘Without such an injection, Malawi would remain the way it is -- with full exposure to the shocks that take place in the commodity market from time to time.’’
The NGOs pointed out that Malawi was party to the Lome’ convention, a trade arrangement that gave preferential treatment to ACP countries’s products between 1975 and 2000. However, during this period ‘‘our exports to the EU dwindled and supply-side constraints remain an issue for our industries.
‘‘What has changed to make us believe that these next 25 years with EPAs will be any different?’’ the NGOs asked.
Another contentious issue is that Malawi has been asked to liberalise 80 percent of all trade with the EU. The NGOs see it as an erosion of policy and developmental space.
The NGOs regard Malawi as a small and emerging economy with a lot of potential. History shows that for the EU to have reached its current scale of economic muscle it used a combination of policies aimed at boosting local production and protecting local industries against unfair foreign competition, said the organisations.
Malawi’s parliamentary committee on trade last month approved the signing of the interim framework agreement of the EPA. The temporary deal is aimed at averting disruption of trade between African countries and the EU, following the expiry of the Cotonou Agreement at the end of last year.
The signing of the EPA was initially slated for the end of last year but ministers from the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region, of which Malawi is part, said at the ESA-European Commission ministerial negotiating meeting in Brussels in November last year that it was not practical to do so.
In the meantime it has transpired that Malawi was due to sign an EPA on its own, leading the NGOs to say that Malawians are being misinformed as Malawi is not signing as part of a bloc of countries, as was originally envisaged.
The EPA will therefore put Malawi in direct competition with the EU at a time when Malawians are hopeful of rebuilding the jobs, industries and livelihoods that had been destroyed through that other imposed scheme, the World Bank’s structural adjustment programmes, according to the NGOs.
The government has not said much on the issue. Secretary for Trade Newby Kumwembe only said that the government was weighing up the options of the trade agreement before signing it.
‘‘We need to look at all outstanding issues and make a decision. We also need to look at how our products will be affected if we do not sign this deal,’’ said Kumwembe.
Citizens Study Uganda ICT Projects
A delegation of eleven government officials from Malawi is in Uganda for a study tour on the implementation of information communication technology (ICT).
The delegation also includes officials studying energy projects among others.
"We are here to learn how the Uganda government is implementing universal access through various information communication technology projects," said the Malawian government manager for the Wide Area Network Patrick Machika who is also the leader of the ICT group.
He said that Malawi is about to start implementing the same programme of achieving universal access. "As at the end of the year 2007, Malawi?s teledensity was 8.12 percent and we want to implement programmes that would see the sector gorw," he said.
"We understand that Uganda has implemented this project through a number of policy reviews, so we are here to share experience, know the problems involved and how to solve them," he told HANA in Kampala.
The ICT Minister of Uganda, Dr. Ham Mukasa Mulira said that when Uganda liberalized the sector in the year 2006, there were 2.2m subscribers who have now grown to 4.7m.
"But the figure is expected to grow to 8.5m within the next twelve months when the two new companies that include Warid Telecoms and Hits Telecoms start operating. Our government is also implementing various projects that are aimed at enabling all Ugandans to have universal access to services," he said.
He said the projects include the national infrastructure data backbone and the electronic government project.
"The first phase of the infrastructure covered Kampala, Entebbe, Jinja but when the whole country is covered this would lower the internet costs," he said.
"In order to bring ICT services to schools we are planning to give out computers to eighty schools and connect health centres," he concluded
The delegation also includes officials studying energy projects among others.
"We are here to learn how the Uganda government is implementing universal access through various information communication technology projects," said the Malawian government manager for the Wide Area Network Patrick Machika who is also the leader of the ICT group.
He said that Malawi is about to start implementing the same programme of achieving universal access. "As at the end of the year 2007, Malawi?s teledensity was 8.12 percent and we want to implement programmes that would see the sector gorw," he said.
"We understand that Uganda has implemented this project through a number of policy reviews, so we are here to share experience, know the problems involved and how to solve them," he told HANA in Kampala.
The ICT Minister of Uganda, Dr. Ham Mukasa Mulira said that when Uganda liberalized the sector in the year 2006, there were 2.2m subscribers who have now grown to 4.7m.
"But the figure is expected to grow to 8.5m within the next twelve months when the two new companies that include Warid Telecoms and Hits Telecoms start operating. Our government is also implementing various projects that are aimed at enabling all Ugandans to have universal access to services," he said.
He said the projects include the national infrastructure data backbone and the electronic government project.
"The first phase of the infrastructure covered Kampala, Entebbe, Jinja but when the whole country is covered this would lower the internet costs," he said.
"In order to bring ICT services to schools we are planning to give out computers to eighty schools and connect health centres," he concluded
A roof for the church of St Patrick
St. Patrick’s Church lies in one of the outstations of the parish of St Michael, in the diocese of Mzuzu in northern Malawi. The parish itself was established in 1949 by the White Fathers. It is situated around 220 miles (346 km) north of the diocesan centre in Mzuzu. Since 2001, for the first time, it has been in the care of a diocesan priest, Father John Benjamin Moyo. With around 16,300 Catholics this is one of the largest parishes in the diocese. And one of the largest outstations in this parish is Chisenga, which is where St Patrick's church is situated. It has some 1,260 Catholic faithful and is growing rapidly. As a result the people have begun work on a comparatively large church and have already reached the stage where it needs a roof. They have building materials on site, but they now need professional help in order to be able to complete the church. And so Father Moyo has turned to the Ctholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), with the support of Bishop J. M. Zuza of Mzuzu.
ACN has promised a grant of $1,200. To help this cause please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web:www.aidtochurch.org
China sets up embassy in Malawi
China formally opened its embassy in the southern African country of Malawi on Saturday, Xinua News Agency reported.
Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun, a special envoy of President Hu Jintao, and Malawian Foreign Minister Joyce Banda attended the opening ceremony in the capital Lilongwe.
On January 15, China's Foreign Ministry announced in Beijing that the two countries had established diplomatic relations on Dec. 28, 2007.
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