•PRESIDENT Lungu with his Malawian counterpart Professor Peter Mutharika (right) during the State Banquet hosted in the Malawi President’s honour at Pamodzi Hotel on Friday.
Picture by THOMAS NSAMA
By CHUSA SICHONE –
MALAWIAN President Peter Mutharika has warned that sidelining women and youths from participating in national matters poses a great risk to development.
Professor Mutharika said this when he officiated at this year’s 89th Agricultural and Commercial Show whose theme is ‘Innovation Beyond the Golden Jubilee’, in Lusaka yesterday.
Prof Mutharika said women and youths were instrumental in national development and hence there was need to embrace their contributions and create an enabling environment for them to participate.
He said this year’s theme was a call to all participants from different sectors to innovatively improve on their products and services to compete effectively in the globalised world.
“Therefore, as we engage in these innovations, let’s consider technology that takes care of the contribution of our youth and technology that creates jobs for both the women and the youth.
“We also need to provide a conducive environment to allow our women and youth, to engage in business, so that they are also able to create employment for their fellow youth,” he said.
President Mutharika said it was important to come up with new technologies, particularly in the agricultural sector to enable increased production while protecting the environment.
Prof Mutharika congratulated President Edgar Lungu for appointing a female Vice-President in InongeWina.
He reminded the gathering that the African Union’s theme this year was “2015 year of women empowerment and development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063’’.
Prof Mutharika said youths constituted 60 per cent of Malawi’s population and observed that that Zambia also had youths.
Prof Mutharika thanked President Lungu for inviting him to officiate at this year’s Agricultural and Commercial Show, saying the gesture demonstrated the excellent relations that continued to exist between Zambia and Malawi.
He also congratulated the Agricultural and Commercial Society of Zambia on keeping up the spirit and enthusiasm in agriculture and commerce before and during Zambia’s 50 years of independence.
“Such events should be encouraged, as they provide exposure and offer opportunities in trade and investment.
“For me, this event provides a platform for the continued growth of the bilateral relations between Malawi and Zambia. This is a relationship we have enjoyed for over 50 years,”
Prof Mutharika noted that Zambia and Malawi had enjoyed cooperation in areas like trade, cross-border trade, development, investment and culture.
He said the landlocked status of both countries should not be seen as a hindrance but a benefit that if nurtured, with the development of interconnected infrastructure, would be beneficial to both countries and the region at large.
Zambia and Malawi have partnered to promote the Shire-Zambezi Water Way Project which he said would provide access to the landlocked countries, to the Indian Ocean’s Port of Chinde in Mozambique once executed and the feasibility study had been completed.
He also welcomed plans to link Malawi to TAZARA as the move would provide for and open up trade routes to the other parts of the world.
President Lungu, who is the patron of the Agricultural and Commercial Society of Zambia, thanked Prof Mutharika for accepting to officially open the show and was hopeful that the reciprocal visit would heighten the bilateral ties for the benefit of the citizens.
