The governments of Malawi and People’s Republic of China yesterday signed an agreement which will see China donating $15 million (about K11 billion) for the construction of five community colleges in the country.
The two governments also signed a three-year $2.16 million (about K1.6 billion) agreement for Salima Agriculture Technology Demonstration Centre and $260, 000 (about K200 million) for disaster relief materials and office equipment to Malawi Red Cross Society.
Speaking during the ceremony in Lilongwe, Chinese Ambassador to Malawi, Shi Ting Wang the said manpower development holds the key to the country’s development and China recognises that Malawi lacks high standard technical colleges.
“As a result, the demographic dividend in this country is not fully tapped into to help Malawi achieve fast and stable growth. Therefore, this project [technical colleges’ construction] has come just at the right time,” Wang said.
The five community colleges are expected to be constructed in what Wang called five regions in the country and each college building will also have corresponding internship machinery.
He also said China, being a country with advanced agriculture and rich experience, wants to share experience and technical transfer with Malawi.
In the agriculture technology demonstration centre agreement, China will dispatch eight experts to conduct technical services apart from providing spare parts for the equipment.
Wang said its cooperation with Malawi is now more targeted and tailored to pay more attention to agriculture and education or manpower development.
“We believe it is people that can make the real difference and it is people who can truly realise development of a country,” he said.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Goodall Gondwe thanked China for providing resources to priority sectors.
“I am pleased to exchange letters for the construction of five community colleges. The President [Peter Mutharika] and the whole Malawi government take the community colleges programme seriously. This will go a long way in reducing unemployment among the youth.
“It has also not been re-assuring that when rains fail, we also don’t produce. And one of the reasons is that we don’t have technology in agriculture. Agriculture technology demonstration centre will therefore help us in improving our agriculture. Our ability to increase production depends on agriculture,” Gondwe said.
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