President Peter Mutharika has asked Malawians to fully utilize abundant resources in the country in order for the nation to progress.

Speaking at the launch of the third Malawi Growth Development Strategy (MGDS III) in Lilongwe on Tuesday, Mutharika said Malawi is a rich country which has poor people.

“Malawi is not a poor country, we are a rich country with many poor people but we have everything that we need to take our people from poverty to prosperity,” Mutharika said.

The MGDS 111 is the medium term strategy designed to contribute to Malawi’s long term aspirations.

The strategy covers a period of five years from 2017 to 2022 and is a successor to the MGDS 11 which was implemented between 2011 and 2016.

The State President explained that God gave Malawi all the three things that enable development namely land, water and natural resources.

Mutharika asked Malawians to figure out how to use the resources.

He went on to call for concerted efforts from different stakeholders in order to effectively implement the strategy.

Mutharika said the strategy has five key priorities namely Agriculture, Water development & Climate Change; Education & Skills Development; Energy, Industry & Tourism Development; Transport & ICT Infrastructure and Health & Population.

In the past Malawi also had a development strategy known as Vision 2020.