SciDev.Net

Malawi cassava researcher: Mutharika says the country has plenty of crops for export

FAO/A. Conti

[LILONGWE] Science and technology are so vital for Malawi's development that technical education for the country's youth will soon become government policy, says the country's president Bingu wa Mutharika.

Speaking this week (28 September) at Lilongwe Technical College, Mutharika said that well-trained researchers will play a vital role in enhancing Malawi's economic development.

"When I go outside the country, I want to see goods that have been produced in Malawi," said Mutharika, whose aim is to see the economy moving towards one based on production and exports from one reliant on import.

Mutharika has frequently emphasised that Malawi has many natural resources, and is amply capable of feeding its people as well as producing crops for export.

It is not Malawi that is poor, he said, but Malawians.

The development of science and technology training in Malawi would not only earn the country much-needed foreign currency, but it would also create job opportunities for young people, said Mutharika.