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Malawi President Arthur Peter Mutharika on Tuesday took world trade policymakers by the lapel when he lobbied for pro-growth policies that will lift poor nations out of economic stagnation.
His remarks came when he presented before the United Nations General Assembly a speech titled “The Sustainable Development Goals: A Universal Push to Transform Our World”
President Mutharika stressed that several of the current First-Third World trade systems are one way and favour those with influence within global organizations.
“It is imperative that regional and global markets should be free of distortions such as subsidies, tariffs and non-tariff barriers. We must live up to the aspirations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Development Agenda.
The global community must realize that it is only by taking such steps that African countries will be able to produce and add value to their commodities. This will generate the necessary jobs to retain the youths in the continent and propel our economies to sustainable growth and prosperity,” said he.
APM further projected to the UNGA a bigger picture of what happens when trade opportunities are only concentrated on one side of the global divide.
“Without investments in these areas, it will continue to be a challenge to stop the youths from the African continent to take upon themselves desperate and dangerous options to cross the oceans and seas to developed economies.
Such investments will also reduce the risk of our youth being lured into radicalism and extremism, with the attendant threat to domestic and international peace and security. I must underline that poverty in African communities is a danger to the global community because poverty and the disenchantment of the Youths can be an easy source of radicalization.”
Still on trade President Mutharika invited the global community to the annual Malawi Investment Forum 2016 slated for October 10 and 11 in Lilongwe.
On Malawi’s state of affairs, the President highlighted the sad realities of global warming and its effects on even small countries whose emission threshold is almost unidentified.
He told the gathering that Malawi has felt effects of global warming at a large scale in way of drought and erratic rain patterns that have caused destructive floods.
The aftermath of such destruction- he noted – is a depleted regime of seasonal harvesting which within three years has subjected close to 6. 5 million people to serious food shortages.
The Malawi leader took a moment to wish outgoing UN Secretary General fruitful future endeavors as he leaves the mantle to his yet-to-be-elected successor.
The President’s speech was monitored by millions of Malawians both home and abroad as it is always the pinnacle of every head of state’s UN assignments.
