Malawi’s aspiring independent presidential candidate Milward Tobias says his administration will speed up the pace at which the economy is growing to six times the current pace in order to accelerate the process of achieving an inclusively wealth and self-reliant nation.
Tobias, in a statement shared on Thursday, added that his government will create an enabling political environment that guarantees good governance.
“In the past, we had periods when Malawi economy grew at a faster rate consistently over a number of years. For example, from 1971 to 1979, and from 2006 to 2011 these were some of golden years in Malawi. This gives hope that with good leadership, we can grow this economy again. My government will bring back these golden years by stabilizing macroeconomic environment to anchor sectoral transformations. We will also facilitate public and private investments in productive sectors, in economic growth catalysts and in social services,” he said.
Turning to governance, Tobias said his government will fix the chain of command to enhance discipline and efficiency in public service by promoting accountability and transparency through, among others, conducting quarterly progress review meetings chaired by the president, which will be broadcast live for the public to follow and participate.
The aspiring His Excellency stated that during the review meetings, cabinet ministers, parastatal boards and leadership of local councils and their respective management teams will present progress in implementation of their plans, including procurement and prices of what they are procuring.
He said the review meetings will take the form, which the Public Sector Reforms Commission took in 2015 to mid 2017 except this time they will be broadcast live and there will be a feedback mechanism for the public to ask questions or clarification.
“We will root out corruption decisively. Fighting corruption is a war. Being a war, it needs troops who are loyal to their nation. Troops who are well-trained and well-resourced. Above all, troops who are best commanded. The agencies responsible for fighting corruption are the troops. The president is the commander. Like in a military war, if troops are compromised, it is difficult to win the fight against corruption. If the commander is compromised, it is impossible to win the fight against corruption. It is acknowledged that corruption is endemic in nearly all sectors and all arms of government. Nonetheless, the public service is the siphoning point and that is the area under direct charge of a president. When the source of siphoning money is closed, there will be no incentive for corrupt people to bride other arms of government in securing protection.
“Government will decisively fight against corruption because the campaign is being done in honesty and honest means of resourcing it. All systemic traps that lead to advance state capture and advance candidate capture are being eliminated before getting into office. That is why I am not forming a political party which has been a systemic cause of corruption in several ways including financing it and having political party members interfering with government operations and procurement,” said Tobias.
Below are some of the highlights in the manifesto by Milward Tobias
Macroeconomic stability
With regard to economic environment, we will pursue fiscal policy, monetary policy and exchange rate policy that are pro-economic growth. Government will approach fiscal consolidation from the perspective of growing tax revenue through growing economy, creating jobs, businesses and rewarding markets for farmers on one hand and removing luxury and reducing unnecessary expenditures on the other hand. This will enable government to narrow the gap between revenue and expenditure without compromising its ability to deliver public services, which is the very objective a government exists for.
Monetary policy orientation has for a long time focused on demand management as a way to contain inflation despite the fact that a large part of inflationary pressure is driven from the supply side of economy and exchange rate fluctuations. The orientation of monetary policy has been counterproductive to private sector investment and economic growth. In living the aspiration of Malawi 2063, government will re-engineer monetary policy to take an expansionary stance to support production. Fiscal discipline as stated above will feed into monetary policy by freeing loanable funds to private sector which currently are swept by government borrowing.
There are two types of inflation namely; demand-pull and cost-push. Demand-pull is driven by excess demand over supply. This is rare in economies where the majority of the population is poor exerting weak demand for goods and services and generating suboptimal market equilibrium. Cost-push is driven by increasing cost of production. Malawi’s inflation is largely cost-push often due to exchange rate fluctuations which drive cost of factor inputs including transportation, high interest rate and inefficient catalysts such as expensive mode of transport.
Deploying demand management interventions to contain cost-push inflation only achieves macroeconomic stability at the expense of other important economic objectives such as facilitating access to affordable capital for investment, economic growth and job creation. Our approach to containing inflation will focus on the supply side (increasing production) as opposed to demand management (limiting consumption) which has been the focus of other administrations.
Exchange rate has been highly unstable and continuously weakening in the last four years. Government will settle for an exchange rate system based on a technically sound assessment of its ability to, i) engender economic growth, ii) engender expansion of employment, iii) engender reduction in income inequality, iv) engender food security, v) engender social welfare maximization. It will be an exchange rate system that achieves a stable, predictable and resilient exchange rate.
Productive sectors, growth catalysts and social services
When an enabling political environment is secured to guarantee good governance, when macroeconomic stability is attained, there will be room for sectoral transformation to grow the economy. Private sector will find it attractive to invest. We will make agriculture resilient to shocks, mechanized, integrated and an all-year round activity in order to permanently achieve food and nutrition security, lower and stabilize prices, boost production of raw materials for agro processing, improve earnings and grow economy. We will facilitate establishment of at least five Malawian owned companies to strengthen capacity for value chain, import substitution, exports and job creation.
We will speed-up establishment of a National Mining Company to get into Joint Venture arrangements with domestic and foreign private investors in order to maximize Malawi’s benefit from mineral resources. We will facilitate investment in things that are unique to Malawi such as cultural centers to promote tourism. Improvement in manufacturing will also support tourism as business people from other countries come for shopping, they will need accommodation and transport. Increased and prudent investment in electricity supply, ICT infrastructure, and efficient transport system which are catalysts for economic growth will be prioritized. Regarding human capital formation, we will improve quality of education and ensure no child fails to complete education for lack of fees.
We will develop skills and promote science and technology. We will promote health by addressing causes of diseases and where people have fallen sick, ensure access to treatment and patient welfare when admitted. We will promote home ownership to facilitate people’s access to decent housing. We will ensure universal access to safe drinking water and safely managed sanitation. We will expand coverage and scope of social protection to ensure every person lives a dignified life.