Malawi Government has admitted that the country is lagging behind to sensitize potential investors on business incentives the country has.

Minister of Finance, Ken Lipenga said this in an interview with the Malawi News Agency on the sidelines of the 2013-2014 pre-budget meeting his ministry conducted in Blantyre.

Lipenga said if investors were fully aware about the business incentives, the country might have had more investors as opposed to the current situation.

“Government has realized just recently that some potential investors both local and international do not know about the business incentives in place.

“Tax incentives in Malawi are enshrined in the main tax legislations that include the Customs and Excise Act, the Income Act and the Export Processing Zones (EPZ) Act, to encourage investment.

“There are no restrictions on remittance of foreign investment funds (including capital, profits, loan repayments and lease repayments) as long as the capital and loans that were obtained from foreign sources were registered with the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM),” explained Lipenga.

He said both domestic and foreign business captains are allowed to invest in any sector of the economy, with no restriction on ownership and that government further puts no restrictions on the size of investment; the source of funds or whether products are destined for export or for the domestic market.

“There are many more incentives. So all these issues, some of investors do not know them, as such they may be afraid to invest here because they do not know about the incentives our country has,” said Lipenga.

He said it is against this background that government will embark on sensitization campaign to sell the government business incentives.

“In fact this campaign will involve several ministries including that of trade. All this will happen after holding meetings with top government officials,” added the Minister.

Lipenga said it was high time government stepped up efforts to increase the number of investors in the country to fast track the recovery of the economy.–Malawi News Agency