RB EXPECTED IN MALAWI

President Rupiah Banda

President Rupiah Banda is tomorrow morning expected in Blantyre in Malawi.

According to a tentative programme obtained from the Zambian High Commission to Malawi, President Banda is expected to arrive at Chileka International Airport at 08:20 hours and proceed to Nsanje district to witness the launch of the Nsanje World Inland Port on Shire river.

Mr. Banda will join his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe, at the airport, who has also been invited to witness the commissioning of the port by the host President, Dr Bingu wa Mutharika.

Presidents Banda and Mugabe will be received at Chileka International airport by Malawi’s Minister for Tourism and Culture, Ken Lupenga, and will each be accorded with a full guard of honour.

Mr. Banda will later be taken to Mount Soche Hotel before flying to the port, some 180 kilometres south of Blantyre where he and Mr. Mugabe will be received by the Malawian President, Dr Wa Mutharika.

After commissioning the port, the three Presidents will attend a state reception at Nsanje Boma State Lodge and President Banda will return home soon after the function.

The Nsanje World Inland Water Port is on the foot of the railway which extends to the  Chipata/Mchinji railway line in Zambia which was commissioned by President Banda in August this year.

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika also attended the commissioning of the Chipata/Mchinji railway line in Chipata, Zambia.

The Nsanje World Inland Water Port is part of the US $6 billion Shire/Zambezi Waterway Project and opens the Shire waterway from Malawi’s inland port of Nsanje to the Indian Ocean Port of Chinde in Mozambique, a distance of 238 kilometres.

The new port is expected to reduce costs of goods and services for landlocked countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe by at least 60 per cent, according to Nsanje District Commissioner, Rodney Simwaka.

ZANIS