Malawi appoints new finmin in surprise move

Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika named Ken Kandodo on on Wednesday as finance minister, replacing Goodall Gondwe, the president's office said.

Kandodo had been head of Malawi's national food reserve agency.

A former Africa head at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Gondwe was appointed in 2004 and presided over near-double digit annual growth as the southern African nation opened up to international investment.

Analysts said the replacement of Gondwe was a surprise.

'Gondwe did such a commendable job in the last five years under trying circumstances, and we need an explanation why he is being removed,' Rafiq Hajat, executive director of local think tank the Institute for Policy Interaction, said.

'We also need a good reason why Ken Kandodo qualifies for this job now when we have to continue the economic path we have taken in the last five years.'

Kandodo, an economist and businessman, who was serving as the chairman of the food reserve agency, is the nephew of the country's first president, Kamuzu Banda.

Malawi is expected to be one of the world's fastest growing economies in 2009, with forecasts of 7 percent expansion this year despite the impact of a global recession.

Gondwe was appointed minister of local government.

'Whatever economic achievements made when I was finance minister was done with the able leadership of the president ... I plan to serve the president well in my new duties,' he told Reuters.

Policymakers attribute the strong projections for this year to a bumper maize crop and the start of uranium production at a new mine.

Despite the strong growth of recent years, annual gross domestic product is still only just over $300 per capita and AIDS has orphaned about one million children.

The government
has long been trying to diversify the economy out of its mainstay, tobacco, which accounts for more than 70 percent of exports and 15 percent of total output, and into other products such as sugar and rice.

The president's office said Wa Mutharika would serve as agriculture and food security minister.