JAPAN and the WORLD Magazine JANUARY ISSUE 2016 #Issue 14

MALAWI THE WORLD MALAWI DOING BUSINESS IN THE RIGHT WAY 正攻法でビジネスを Malawi has certainly promising economic prospects and major opportunities to offer, in particular in the areas of telecommunications, agriculture and food processing, transport, tourism, and energy. マラウイは経済の展望が明るく、可能性にも富んでいる。それは間違いない。とりわけ通信、農業、食品加工、輸送、旅行、エネルギーの部門に注目すべきである。しかしマラウイでのビジネスの立ち上げと展開はともに容易ではない。 T he Ministry of Industry and Trade has expressed optimism that the current reforms will push Malawi into the top 100 ranking on the World Bank’s Doing Business Index in the next two years. According to 2009 Enterprise Surveys, the top 3 obstacles to run a business in Malawi are: access to finance, transportation, and practices of the informal sector. To overcome those challenges, in 2015 the Government launched campaign to push the country’s to attract foreign investors after noting that the poor environment especially on land acquisition, utility connectivity, legal environment and business permits issuance, among others pushed several prospective investors to the neighboring countries. Several reforms have been employed to improve the situation, among them the setting up of the One Stop Center at the MITC where investors can get a full assistance how to establish their businesses. Malawi has a great market to be explored. Export of products such as coffee, tea, groundnuts, macadamia and tobacco, but also of textile articles, rubber and woven appeal are great opportunities for foreign investors. Malawi government has also embarked on investing in agro-processing through Green Belt Initiative project that seeks to irrigate over 100,000 hectors to improve agriculture products and value added. There are number of incentives in the industry and there are already some companies that have already started producing products under this arrangement such as Malawi Mango factory. One of the organizations that are interested in trade projects with Malawi is Trade Facilitation of 83 // JANUARY 2016 FACT Malawi lies landlocked in southeast Africa, with Lake Malawi taking up about a fifth of the landscape. Independent from Britain since 1964, it endured the one-party rule of President for Life Hastings Kamuzu Banda for more than 25 years. Democratic elections in 1994 ushered in new leadership of this country, nearly self-sufficient in food. ECONOMY Industry: Tobacco, tea, sugar, sawmill products. Agriculture: Tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea; groundnuts; cattle. Exports: Tobacco, tea, sugar, cotton, coffee, minerals. Text From: National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition Canada (TFO Canada), a non-profit organization funded by Canadian Government that confronts the challenge of global poverty by promoting sustainable economic development. This is possible through export information, advice and contact in Africa and other parts of developing world. There are already many successfully accomplished projects run under TFO, such as preserving culture through development in textiles in Ethiopia; strengthening trade of Peruvian mangos; empowerment of Indonesian women exporters. However, despite the fact that TFO Canada provides with variety of assistance many countries failed to exploit available opportunities. Malawi lost trade opportunity to utilize $20bn offered by Canada through Canadian Market Access Initiative due to the limitation in production capacity and standards. To increase an export to Canada, a three-day seminar took place in Lilongwe (Malawi) for Malawian business people in November 2015. The seminar was organized by TFO Canada to make business people aware how to explore business offers in Canada. The main challenge to overcome is that producers in Malawi do not have a capacity to produce enough to satisfy the Canadian consumers. Malawian Ministry of Industry and Trade, therefore, came up with several solutions to tackle this issue. One of them is the National Export Strategy (NES) 2013- 2018. The NES provides clearly prioritized and phased plans of action in four key areas. NES FOUR KEY AREAS 01 02 03 The first area is developing priority export clusters that can complement the exports of traditional products such as tobacco and tea. Second are plans to improve the enabling environment for private sector growth through enhancing the productive base of the economy. Third are plans to develop key institutions that are key for sustainable growth. JAPAN AND THE WORLD MAGAZINE

JAPAN and the WORLD Magazine JANUARY ISSUE 2016 #Issue 14 | Page 84