The Vice President of the Republic of Malawi, the Right Honourable Saulos Chilima;
The Norwegian Ambassador to Malawi, Ambassador Asbjørn Eidhammer;
Your Honour, the Chief Justice, Honourable Anastasia Msosa;
The Speaker of Parliament, Right Honourable Richard Msowoya, M.P.;
The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Honourable Reverend Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, M.P.;
Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers present here;
The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Ambassador Thandiwe Dumbutshena;
Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps;
The Norwegian Community in Malawi;
Senior Government Officials;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
On behalf of the Government and the people of the Republic of Malawi and, indeed, on my own behalf, I am honoured and pleased to extend our warm and heartfelt welcome to Your Excellency, Mrs. Erna Solberg, on this rare and auspicious occasion. Your Excellency’s visit is a source of inspiration to us, and a clear demonstration of the confidence and trust that you have in our young democracy. You are welcome to the Warm Heart of Africa, and you feel comfortable knowing that you are home away from home.
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen
At the outset, permit me to express my sincere appreciation for the cordial and fraternal bilateral cooperation that exists between our two countries. The presence of the Embassy of Norway in Malawi, since 1999, on residential basis, and Your Excellency’s visit to Malawi, barely after Malawi’s first-ever Tripartite Elections, reaffirms the determination by your Government, to further strengthen its relations with Malawi. We will continue, on our part, to work harder to ensure that our bilateral relations are taken to even greater heights.
Your visit, Prime Minister, is also in a way a vote of confidence in the rule of law and the character of the people of Malawi, considering that it’s not very long when we had the elections in this country. In other countries such a high profile visit would be unthinkable. But as you can attest Malawians are peace-loving people. Therefore, Your Excellency please feel free and warmly welcomed to Malawi, once again.
Your Excellency,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;
Malawians admire the great milestones and achievements that despite going through a number of political and socio-economical challenges throughout the course of history, Norway today stands as one of the economic powerhouse in Europe. The never ending presence of Norway, in Malawi, continues to be a critical aspect, in shaping and improving our governance institutions and providing support to our development agenda. We, in Malawi, are indeed grateful for the role that Norway has played and continues to play in our country’s socio-political development.
Malawi greatly appreciates the assistance which she receives from the Norwegian Government, in particular, initiatives to assist the country achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Norway continues to be our reliable partner in areas of socio-economic development, geared towards poverty reduction, most notably: good governance; HIV and AIDS mitigation; macro-economic reforms; human rights; climate change management; and health.
Norway has been one of the countries that has demonstrated commitment to align their operations to the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy, (MGDS), under the framework of the Paris Declaration on Aid effectiveness. It is also worth noting that, Norway happens to be among the few countries which provide flexible development assistance to Malawi.
Your Excellency,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;
Of great significance is the recent statistics, which have showed that Malawi has, so far, benefitted a total amount of USD 100 million in development aid from Norway and the major programme is the support to our National Budget, through the Health Sector Wide Approach Programme. On an annual basis, Your Excellency, the Norwegian Government gives the Malawi Government Norwegian Kroner (NOK) 60 million, which is equivalent to about MK 4 billion, which helps in providing basic essential health services; building infrastructure; and procuring of medical equipment, among others.
Malawi is also appreciative of the fact that Norway, has undertaken to extend her assistance in the areas of food security,capacity building and education, among others. In this regard, I wish to commend and acknowledge with heart-felt gratitude, all the assistance granted by Norway. I would like to assure the Government of Norway that this cordial gesture has been, and continues to be, of great value to Malawi. We are hopeful that every assistance we receive will be utilized prudently, for the social-economic development of this country.
Your Excellency,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
At this juncture, let me say that it is my commitment to see that Malawi attains her development goals through promotion of good governance and the rule of law.
As we embark on the journey to rebuilding the country, after 50 years of Independence, I want to assure you of my personal commitment to build effective governance institutions. We are, therefore, grateful for the electoral and the general support to the governance initiatives which Norway renders to Malawi. I would like to assure the Government of Norway that this cordial gesture has been, and continues to be, of great value to Malawi. We take the bold stand that every assistance we receive will be utilized prudently, for the social-economic development of this country.
Your Excellency,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;
My Government is geared towards delivering the promises which we made in our Manifesto. We would also like to incorporate and implement some worthwhile propositions from the opposition parties and other such stakeholders to move the country forward.
Allow me, therefore, Your Excellency, to re-affirm the words in my Inaugural Statement that this is not time to rest; this is not time for vengeance. This is time to build our great Republic, into the force for good, that we can be. This is time for Malawi to be strong again. Strong against marginalization; strong against poverty and disease; strong against fraud and greed; and strong against weakness and fear.
Your Excellency,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;
This is not the time for a long speech. However, allow me to, once again, express our gratitude for the cordial and warm relations that Malawi and Norway, enjoy. I would, therefore, like to reaffirm Malawi’s commitment to further strengthening the scope of cooperation for the mutual benefit of our two countries under my leadership.
Your Excellency,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;
With these few remarks, I would like to request you to stand and raise your glasses in a toast: to the continued good health and success of King Harald V, the Government and the people of the Kingdom of Norway, and to the continued fruitful bilateral relations between our two countries.
Thank you for your attention!
