London:  Nigeria has been named a partner country in the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, a G8 initiative to catalyze private-sector investment in African agriculture, PANA reported Monday, quoting the country's Ministry of Agriculture. The announcement was made at the G8 Food Security and Nutrition events here over the weekend. Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Akinwumi Adesina represented President Goodluck Jonathan at the events. Dr. Adesina noted that inclusion in this global partnership of G8 nations and private sector partners would help Nigeria achieve its Agricultural Transformation Agenda to create 3.5 million new jobs and provide over US$2 billion of additional income for Nigerian farmers.

Yokohama:  Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe has assured Malawi Government that Japan will review the proposal on the development of the Sena Corridor with a view of providing financial and technical assistance. This was in response to the request that was made by President Dr. Joyce Banda at a bilateral meeting that was held on Saturday in Yokohama. The Sena Corridor project, which includes the construction of the Chiromo Bridge in Nsanje, is a very important corridor for Malawi as it promotes regional integration, linking Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Washington: The authorities remain committed to the policy reforms they have been implementing since May 2012. Notwithstanding growing public complaints and protests about the rising cost of living, the authorities reiterated their commitment to stay the course of policy reforms to the Managing Director of the Fund when she visited Malawi in early January 2013. While they have made concessions in response to political and social pressures (e.g., the recent wage increase to striking civil servants), the cornerstones of the reforms - the market based exchange rate regime and automatic adjustment mechanism for fuel prices - have remained unchanged.

Blantyre: Malawi has introduced an Electronic Single Window (ESW) that allows trade and transport players to lodge standardized information and documents through a single entry point to fulfill import, export and transit regulatory requirements. ESW is a system that expedites and shortens import and export transactions electronically. Speaking at the inauguration of this year's trade fair, Minister of Trade and Industry Sosten Gwengwe said the innovation will simplify the private sector's mode of operation as one way of empowering it to take up the leading role in enhancing the country's economic growth.

Lilongwe: As the august House considers the budget for approval I wish to ask that special attention be paid to the following aspects of the budget:  The first is the fact that the development partners are financing the budget to the tune of 41 percent of total expenditure. While this is good news in that it shows the trust and confidence that development partners have in Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda's leadership and policies, it also raises the issue of long term fiscal sustainability.

Lilongwe: Malawi Government is advocating for further trade harmonisation and simplified customs procedures to enable the private sector trade to easily across borders, Ministry of Industry and Trade has said. Responding to a questionnaire on Friday, in the wake of a Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) negotiations that took place in Kigali, Rwanda, Ministry of Industry and Trade spokesperson Wiskes Nkombezi said Malawi supports the grand free trade area because of the numerous benefits associated with it.

Lilongwe:  The Ministry of Industry and Trade has said land-locked Malawi stands to benefit greatly from the newly launched on-line Non-Tariff Barrier (NTB) reporting which covers the tripartite free trade area (TFTA). TFTA recently launched an on-line NTB reporting mechanism which is aimed at monitoring and eliminating technical and other non-quantitative barriers to trade occurring in the region.

Harare: Trade between Zimbabwe and Malawi has increased in the past two years, though skewed in favour of Malawi, with imports reaching US$176 million compared to exports of US$60 million. According to trade figures released by ZimTrade, between 2008 and 2009 trade was skewed in favour of Zimbabwe with the local economy recording imports of US$31,2 million and exports worth US$118,2 million.

The African Development Bank has called for US$40 billion per year over the coming decades to be provided to African countries to address development issues directly related to climate change. The current study addresses a key component of these issues, the effect of climate change on the road infrastructure of Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, all located within the Zambezi River Basin. The study incorporates a stressor-response approach to estimate the effects of projected precipitation, temperature, and flooding changes on the paved and unpaved road infrastructure of these countries.

Until 2010, Malawi experienced solid growth averaging around 7 percent (2006-2010) largely through prudent macroeconomic policies and a supportive donor environment, which allowed Malawi to achieve a historic level of income per capita of $350 since independence. Despite the strong economic performance, poverty remains widespread and concentrated in rural areas. Economic imbalances started to build in late 2008 in the context of the global crisis, and were intensified during the run-up to the 2009 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.