President Lazarus Chakwera, in accompaniment of the First Lady Madam Monica Chakwera has arrived in New York where is expected to attend the first part of the fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (UN-LDC5) to take place at the UN headquarters on Thursday.

The summit is expected to adopt the Doha Programme of Action which seeks to rally support from the international community to LDCs in eradicating poverty, fostering science, technology and innovation as well as addressing climate change and recovering from COVID-19.

The conference also offers an opportunity to the United Nations to send a strong signal to the international community for need of special programs in support of the LDCs such as loans grants in terms of development financing, multinational trading such as preferential markets and technical assistance towards trade mainstreaming.

As chair of the UN LDCs President Chakwera will represent the 46 member countries and deliver a message on their behalf at the conference on Thursday.

The President says he will use the summit to lobby for Malawi’s trade and investment opportunities both from fellow LDC members and other global stakeholders.

“While here, I will present and lobby our case to enrich both bilateral and multilateral relations in trade and investment with fellow LDC members. In doing so, Malawi will harness investment and trade relations to attract foreign direct investment and establish markets for our products and services in our quest to expand the export base,” he wrote on his official Facebook page upon arrival.

The second part of the summit will take place from March 5-9, 2023 in Doha.