Salima — President Arthur Peter Mutharika says the ground of breaking ceremony for the Multi billion kwacha China-Africa Textile Company in Salima is a significant step towards turning Malawi into a major textile exporter in Africa.
The President made the remarks on Monday at Salima Local Education Authority School, shortly after the ground breaking ceremony.
“Our government is focused on turning the country from a predominately importing to an exporting country as in our campaign promises, and the China-Africa Textile Company is one such project.
With this project Malawi will produce various textile products for export to countries such as the United States, India, other African countries, and China itself. It will help the country to increase its forex earnings,” said the president.
He further said that contrary to sentiments made by his opponents, work is progressing in all the projects that he has done ground breaking.
“We are doing much to bring direct foreign investments in the country as a way of creating more jobs and turning around the economy,” said the president.
Speaking earlier, Joseph Mwanamveka, Minister of Agriculture and Water Development said apart from creating jobs, the textile factory will help to boost the growth of the cotton industry which has been going down in the past few years.
“Government has taken strides towards reenergizing the cotton industry, and this factory will help a lot as it will be a big market for cotton farmers,” said Mwanamveka.
Mwanamveka said the factory will require up to 100 metric tons of cotton per year, which is already more than what the farmers are producing.
In his remark Chinese Ambassador to Malawi His Excellency, Shi-Ting Wang, said that the new factory is a major step towards strengthening relations between Malawi and China.
Chairperson of Africa Textile, Wenbin Ju, said the new company will require an investment of K6 billion half of which will be used in the first phase and the remainder in the second phase.
Ju said the company will employee up to 1,500 Malawians and bring foreign revenue of about $36 million per year.
Culled from Malawi News Agency
