Government has reiterated that the country’s unavailability of foreign exchange can only be resolved through enhancing the export base.

According to Principal Secretary for Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives in the Ministry of Trade and Industry Francis Zhuwao, besides reworking on import substitution, the country needs to produce more products for exports.

He said: “They can be resolved through enhancing our export base, creating more room to produce more and export, and making sure that we put regulations in place so that we get back the proceeds.

“Because some of the goods we find on the market are the same ones that can be produced locally so the best we can do is to produce more do some import substitution.”

Zhuwao further noted that Malawi has plunged into forex scarcity challenges mainly due to her failure to get proceeds from exports.

Speaking after meeting the Ministry of Industry and Trade officials, chairperson for the parliamentary committee on industry, trade, and tourism Paul Nkhoma has bemoaned lack of coordination among key players.

“The different institutions that are involved in exporting the pace at which these services providers are running us slower but also disjointed, each institution seems to have their own time frames.

“So, what we are calling upon them is for them to start working on coordination on management issues, not technical ones,” said Nkhoma.

Malawi derives about 65 percent of its foreign earnings from tobacco selling, making the southeastern African nation the most tobacco-reliant country in the world.