By Sheminah Nkhoma & Kingsley Jassi:
President Lazarus Chakwera has urged Malawians to be patriotic by investing in businesses that can increase their income and contribute to economic growth.
The President said this yesterday during the launch of the Coca-Cola Beverages Malawi Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Line.
The launch event took place in Lilongwe.
The modern bottling production line at Coca- Cola Beverages Malawi’s Kanengo plant is said to have boosted the company’s production.
Officials say the new plant will enable the company to produce an additional 19,200 bottles per hour as it targets the regional export market.
The Artificial Intelligence-powered plant has since been touted for improving production efficiency, cutting the number of down time incidents while making the company save on operational costs.
Speaking at the event, an ecstatic Chakwera said the establishment of the line comes at a time Malawi is looking at ways of meeting Malawi 2063 vision goals through industrialisation.
“Let me encourage all Malawians to replicate the example of the company; let us invest in businesses that will enable us to generate income and contribute to the economic development of the country,” he said.
However, the Malawi leader expressed concern over the misuse of public funds by some citizens, saying the practice was thwarting economic growth chances.
In his remarks, Coca-Cola Beverages Malawi Limited Managing Director Neil French said they had invested about $14.9 million in the PET line, which produces 19,200 bottles per hour, to create job opportunities and help the country address foreign exchange challenges.
He said the PET line would help the company stop importing products from other countries.
“Establishing a local bottling line will help us to save [money] on importing plastic bottles as we previously used to import them from Zambia but now the costs have been reduced because we are going to be producing them ourselves,” French said
He added that the newly opened investment would create more jobs for youths and women as a way of improving the economic environment in the country.
“The introduction of new technologies at the plant has created opportunities for Coca- Cola staff to be trained as our goal is to create opportunities across the value chain,” French said.
On his part, Industry and Trade Minister Vitumbiko Mumba described the PET line as a significant step in promoting locally made products.
“While others claimed that investors would not come to Malawi due to [an] unstable economic environment, Coca- Cola has invested in this plant and is on course to create jobs for Malawians,” Mumba said.
The minister further said recent import restrictions imposed by the government over the past two months had helped in improving the environment on the local market as suppliers were securing product supply contracts.
He disclosed that in few months, another multi-million dollar plant by Bakhresa will be unveiled in Blantyre.
It will be producing cooking oil.
Coca Cola has been operating in Malawi for over five decades as part of its Africa footprint which includes 15 countries and six key ones as it claims to account 40 percent of Africa’s market share, making it the largest beverage company on the continent.
Coca-Cola Beverages Malawi Limited (CCBML) is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), the largest Coca-Cola bottler in Africa.
CCBA operates in 15 countries, including South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania, Botswana, Ghana, Zambia, Lesotho and Malawi. — Malawi News Agency and The Daily Times
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