One of the country’s economic strategists, Jerry Jana, says Malawi needs to refocus its priorities in an attempt to recover the ailing economy.
Jana said in an interview that already, Malawi has enough blueprints crafted in an attempt to heal the sick economy but less has been done.
The former Agricultural Development and Makerting Corporation (Admarc) boss then suggested a review of both medium and long term strategies by aligning them to the prevailing hurdles and feasible action.
“The impression I have of the economy is that now we are in a pathetic state. We need to come out of this. We need strategies that can get us out of this,” he said.
According to Jana, recovering from the mess would require, among other things, adoption of austerity measures that may, however, be perceived unpopular by the general populous.
He suggested, for example, the need to eliminate wastes in the civil service and effectively manage the public purse which has been abused for so long.
Jana further suggested the narrowing down of appetite for luxurious imports and restructuring the taxation system.
He said it was also high time government conceded that Malawi needs home grown solutions to the recovery path.
“Let’s not be under any illusions that tomorrow the donors will turn around and come back on board, no. They have their own problems,” said Jana.
He further said Malawi needs to get away from what he called implementation paralysis of plans by effecting ideas that have been formulated.
He then rated the current reform measures as superficial which need radicalism to address.
For some time now, the Malawi economy has been almost on its knees with almost all parameters performing poorly.
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