MINISTRY TO IMPROVE BUSINESS REFORMS

Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism has vowed to continue championing implementation and operationalization of reforms to create a conducive doing business environment.

The ministry’s Principal Secretary Ken Ndala said in an interview on Sunday that efforts to improve the business environment and investment climate continues at a steady pace.

His comments come in the wake of a recent World Bank Doing Business 2020 Report, which shows that Malawi has moved two steps up the ladder from 111 last year to 109 out of 190 economies.

The report, published Thursday, shows that Malawi’s score has improved from 60.4 last year to 60.9, although no business reform was done during the period under review.

Said Ndala: “Various reforms that are being implemented demonstrate that government has prioritized issues of private sector development.

“The reforms are aimed at increasing private sector participation and promoting sustainable economic growth and development to create jobs, increase production, trade, government revenue and household incomes as outlined in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III and other development plans.”

He said in the 2018/19 financial year, for instance, government championed a number of regulatory and institutional reforms focusing on reducing the regulatory and institutional burden, attracting foreign and domestic investment and improving effectiveness of public agencies in service delivery to the private sector.

These reforms include Immigration Electronic Permit (e-permit) System, improvement in workplace registration and operationalization of the Warehouse Receipt Systems Act 2018 and Commodity Exchanges Guidelines.

In the Doing Business 2019 rankings, Malawi was the third topmost reformer in Africa on the ease of doing business, moving 23 steps up the ladder on the global doing business ranking to position 110 out of 190 economies from 133 the year before.

In an interview on Sunday, Chamber for Small and Medium Business Association executive secretary James Chiutsi said despite other factors of doing business improving, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) still find the business operating environment tough.

On Thursday, World Bank country manager Greg Toulmin said although Malawi is making strides in narrowing the gap with global regulatory best practice in business, more needs to be done.