Government authorities have said that they will use the US Africa Leaders’ Summit as an opportunity to strengthen ties with the United States government in the energy sector.

This comes as president Peter Mutharika and the rest of his entourage have arrived in US to attend the US Africa Leadership summit which aims at strengthening bilateral ties with African countries in a number of issues that foster development.

Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Atupele Muluzi told the press while in the US that government is keen on strengthening ties with the US on the energy development sector.

This comes as the $350 million US funded energy compact project is on course of implementation which will improve the country’s ailing energy sector.

The compact was suspended during the old DPP regime under the leadership of late Bingu Wa Mutharika due to violation of human rights for people and bad governance that prevailed then.

The compact was then reinstated during the Peoples Party PP led regime under the leadership of Joyce Band who addressed the bad governance and human rights issues.

Atupele said that government will utilize the summit to assure the US government of its commitment to ensure that the energy project is not interrupted so that it gets completed to help the country increase its energy production.

Currently less than ten percent of citizens access electricity while the rest rely on natural resources as source of energy which experts have said is a challenge contributing to continued poverty trends facing citizens.