President Lazarus Chakwera on Friday launched his ambitious Agriculture, Tourism and Mining (ATM) promotion week at BICC in Lilongwe with a passionate call for patriotism among Malawians and more support from local and international investors.

The ATM Strategy is a brainchild of Chakwera inspired by his desire to see the country swiftly achieving food security, stimulating job creation and fostering wealth creation with a strategic focus on enhancing productivity within the ATM sectors.

Characterized by an Agriculture Investment Conference, an International Tourism Expo and a Mining Investment Forum, the ATM week, said Chakwera, is critical in selling our country and courting investors to appreciate what, as a country, we are offering to achieve food security, create jobs and generate wealth.

According to the President, by prioritizing and coordinating efforts to boost productivity in the pivotal sectors of agriculture, mining and tourism, substantial economic growth can be catalysed.

In his 2024-25 national budget, Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda said to develop and catalyse growth, the government has identified anchor sectors that have been chosen for their potential to contribute to economic growth.

“The anchor sectors are Agriculture, Tourism, and Mining, commonly referred to as ATM. The ATM Strategy will further help to boost domestic revenue in this budget; therefore, the ATM sectors will have significant allocations, and the government will focus on developing national legal and institutional frameworks for protecting natural resources,” Chithyola Banda said.

Speaking during the 2nd US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC during a Leader’s Session on Promoting Food Security and Food Systems Resilience, Chakwera appealed to investors to support the ATM strategy.

“I announced to the people of Malawi that my mission in pursuit of this vision was to attract investment and trade in three sectors that I believe hold the greatest promise for unlocking Malawi’s vast potential for achieving job creation, wealth creation and food security. I call our focus on these three sectors Malawi’s ATM Strategy, with A standing for Agriculture, T for Tourism, and M for Mining.

“In summary, a partnership between Malawi and the United States in Agriculture, Tourism, and Mining, akin to the partnership we have had in energy and road infrastructure through two multi-million dollar Millennium Challenge Compacts, can radically transform Malawi into the inclusively wealthy and self-reliant nation we envision for ourselves, a nation whose wealth we refuse to lose through illicit financial flows by foreign plunderers or through the corrupt acts of domestic ones,” Chakwera said.

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