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Malawi President Announces Measures to Spark Economy

Lameck Masina

   BLANTYRE, MALAWI - Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera has announced
   plans to pull the country out of poverty, which he blamed on past
   governments.

   In his address to parliament Friday, Chakwera dismissed a notion that
   Malawi is a poor country.

   "You may have heard it that Malawi is a poor country, but we must
   reject this lie," he said. "Surely my country, with $85 million in gold
   exported to the Middle East every year, is not poor. My country, with a
   freshwater lake and multiple rivers capable of generating $100 million
   a year in revenue, is not poor."

   Chakwera said the poverty for which Malawi is renowned is man-made.

   "Ours is a country stripped of its God-given wealth and potential by
   syndicates of people in the public sector who exploit decades of bad
   government policies and practices to enrich at the expense of
   Malawians. In short, the poverty of our people is man-made, which means
   it can and must be unmade," he said.

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