Six percent growth rate essential

Malawi needs to achieve an annual growth rate of at least six percent over the next decade to reduce poverty, President Bingu wa Mutharika said this week. The country's growth rate is currently below four percent. To reach the required level of expansion, the government was "determined to create the necessary conditions for effective private sector participation in macroeconomic growth, through fundamental policy reforms to improve economic and political governance," Mutharika told a function to commemorate 44 years of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in the country. The Malawian government would also improve accountability and transparency through the "zero-tolerance option on corruption," but the fight against corruption, underdevelopment and poverty would require huge amounts of resources, said Mutharika, and called on the US government for support. He also made reference to Malawi's accession to the African Peer Review Mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, which "means that we are ready to test our governance system through international evaluation principles... In doing so, we hope to regain the confidence of and support for our vision to transform Malawi into an industrial country." Malawi failed to qualify this year for the first round of the US government's financial assistance package to poor countries, known as the Millennium Challenge Account, because of shortcomings in fiscal and financial management. The US Charge d'Affaires, David Gilmour, said: "USAID's overall goal in Malawi is to reduce poverty and increase food security through broad-based, market-led economic growth," adding that his government was committed to helping countries that respected the rule of law and created jobs for its people.