His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has stressed the need for the country to put more resources in areas of high value such as infrastructure development, human capital and governance of digitalisation.
The President made these remarks on Friday during the official opening of a new administration block and teaching facility for Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) at the university’s Bunda campus in Lilongwe.
The President noted that Malawi can achieve sustainable socioeconomic growth if it only invests in high value sectors and embraces mechanization.
“My administration’s top priorities until 2025 are job creation, wealth creation, and food security. To see these three priority areas achieved with speed, we would need to invest in certain key areas that would act as accelerators, and the areas were infrastructural development, human capital development, and governance digitalization,” he said.
He singled out Agriculture as the major driver of economic development for Malawi if it is harnessed well.
“If there is one thing we must get right as a country, it is agriculture. We must mechanize it to scale up production of crops. We must diversify it to produce a variety of crops that are in high demand in different markets around the world. We must commercialize it by focusing on crops that are of high value. We must industrialize it by attracting investors that can build factories that add value to everything we produce to create exportable products that generate forex revenue; revenue we can then invest in other sectors to create a diversified economy of the future.”
The K13 billion-worth Luanar administration bloc and teaching facility has two lecture theatres and six laboratories, among other things, and will accommodate more than 1000 students at any given time.
LUANAR Vice Chancellor, Professor Emmanuel Kaunda, said the newly constructed building will increase intake of the university, thereby contributing to the realisation of Malawi 2063.
He described human capacity as a key enabler to the achievement of Malawi 2063 saying the new structures will ease teaching and learning for lecturers and students.
President of LUANAR Students Union, Maya Kachepa, hailed the president for the building, saying it will motivate the students to work hard.
The new administration building and the teaching facility have been fully funded by the Malawi Government.
