By Kingsley Jassi:
The country’s worsening trade imbalance could not be illustrated better than what was obtained at Mchinji-Mwami One-stop Border Post on Monday where contrasting levels of business were observed.
The border post is one of the busiest, operating 24 hours, and is key to the Nacala corridor used by Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe beyond.
Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) is hosting their counterparts from Mozambique and Zambia to discuss customs system integration for data sharing under the Nacala Corridor Development initiative being supported by the World Bank through the Southern Africa Trade and Connectivity Project (SATCP).
On Monday, MRA officials took the visitors to appreciate operations at Mchinji- Mwami One Stop Border Post as Malawi and Zambia, which are already interconnected and share customs data, negotiate with Mozambique to rope that country in.
While the Mchinji border side was busy clearing imports from Zambia, especially beverages, fertilisers, cement and a wide range of building materials, the Mwami border side was quiet, with just a few cane chairs and a truck-load of some agricultural materials.
MRA Head of Modernisation Joseph Khonje acknowledged the imbalance, especially now when the economy is in the lean season when imports are at the lowest.
However, he explained that the border post has to be busy to generate revenue, hence the positive side besides the trade imbalance issue.
“In terms of revenue, it is a positive development because as MRA, we need to collect revenue from imports. As the volumes increase it means the workforce also has to increase, to ensure we don’t delay trucks,” Khonje said.
He further said the issue of trade imbalance is what the country has to address to ensure more production that boosts exports and makes the other side of the border post busy as well.
“In terms of balance of trade, we noticed also when we visited the Zambian side that imports are not as huge as in Malawi. This is an issue that as a country we can improve to make sure that we are producing more and exporting and that is what the government is advocating,” Khonje said.
Mozambican leader of delegation, Osvaldo Correia, was impressed with the OSBP operations, observing efficiency in goods clearance, a development he said Mozambique was looking forward to implementing with the two countries.
The World Bank project aims to improve trade in the region by improving key infrastructure like border posts, digitisation of customs systems and interconnection to enable data sharing.
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