Africa-Press – Malawi. The government is contemplating on resuming operations of the Malawi Development Corporation (MDC) to promote its interventions in businesses and promote production. MDC, a fully government owned and controlled profit-oriented entity, was established in 1964 but became defunct in 2000.
Speaking in the just ended Parliament meeting, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe said death of corporations such as the MDC has exposed the economy to myriad shocks and disruptions in the production and supply chains.
Gwengwe cited woes at Peoples Trading Centre as an example of an entity in which the state cannot directly intervene as does not have such mandate. “A government must be able to intervene and if a government cannot intervene, it is a weak government but you would know that since the dawn of multiparty we moved from intervention to liberalisation which has failed our country.
“Therefore, we are thinking as government of bringing in an entity such as MDC so that it can be a carrier of equity into various companies that if we need to intervene, government must be able to intervene especially when our people are in an awkward situation,” he said.
Under its establishment, the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) was mobilising resources and channel them to MDC from where equity was being channelled towards investments.
The investments of the corporation saw the birth of many companies including the Commercial Bank of Malawi, Sugar Corporation of Malawi, Shire Bus Lines which have not strived due to privatisation which came during the Bakili Muluzi era among other factors.
Economist from the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences Betchani Tchereni said the need to have a company such as MDC is long overdue. Justin Mkweu is a fast growing reporter who currently works with Times Group on the business desk. He is however flexible as he also writes about current affairs and national issues.
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