Background Information

• GDP per capita: US$ 210
• GDP distribution by sector:
  SECTOR
  YEAR 2000 (Million Kwacha ) YEAR 2001(Million Kwacha)
  Agriculture 5210 5365.6
  Mining & quarrying 187.9 209.7
  Manufacturing 1705.2 1690.3
  Utilities 189 198
  Construction 287.9 181.1
  Distribution 2760.4 2953.9
  Transport & Communication 551.7 573.5
  Financial & professional services 1057 886.8
  Ownership of dwelling 184.6 189.4
  Private social & community services 271.2 278.6
  Producers of Government Services 1282 1296.8
  Unalocable financial services -387.4 322.8

GDP @ factor cost
13299.5
13600.9

NB: One Kwacha (K1) = US$0.01399

Contribution of private investment to GDP:
SECTOR
YEAR 2000 (Million Kwacha ) YEAR 2001(Million Kwacha)
Agriculture 5210 5365.6
Mining & quarrying 187.9 209.7
Manufacturing 1705.2 1690.3
Utilities 189 198
Construction 287.9 181.1
Distribution 2760.4 2953.9
Transport & Communication 551.7 573.5
Financial & professional services 1057 886.8
Ownership of dwelling 184.6 189.4

NB: The contribution by the above sectors may have some public sector input, the output is largely private sector.

Population : 9933868

Population distribution by age groups is:
4,333260 0-14 years
5,206,150 15-64 years
394458 over 64 years

Literacy rate: 58% of those aged 5 years and above. Literacy rates among males and females are 64% and 51% respectively

Secondary school enrollment by gender : a total of 926,740

Higher education enrollment: 12928 students in teachers training college and university.

Technical education enrollment: 1305

Number of classrooms/1000 inhabitants 9.98. There are 38157 classrooms in primary and secondary schools. Primary school enrollment is 2,896, 280.

2- Current situation on Information and Communication Technologies

Number of TV sets/1000 inhabitants: ? .007

Number of computers/1000 inhabitants: .009

(Identity the firms) Monopoly Duopoly Open
Competition Number of
Customers
Telephone (fixed)

(MTL) Malawi Telecommunications LTD
A second provider may be issued soon. u Yes 57,000 as of July 2001
Cellular

Celtel,
The Telekom Networks (Mw) Ltd Yes 43,000 as of July 2001
Data Networks

MTL Malawi Limited (M-Streams)
Yes 4,400 as of July 2001
Internet Service Providers

SDNP, Malawi Net, Africa Online, Epsilon &
Omega, Computerland, NCR, Global Internet. There are twenty organisations who have been issued licence as of August 10, 2001. But only eight are operational. There are several intranets such as Malawi Government wide Area Network, MTL internal Internet Services, Limbe Leaf Internal Internet Service, Malawi Hotels. Because of lack of resources to do a detailed research in this area, the numbers of internet users is not available . But the Government intranet has 450 users on Capital Hill alone. The Government intraret will grow geographically when funds are available.
Cable/satellite TV networks

Television Malawi,
Multi-choice Yes

National strategy for ICT for Development

1. Does your country have an independent regulatory body?
   Yes for communication technologies, but not for Information Technology.
2. What are the responsibilities of the regulatory body?
   Issuing licences
3. Does your country have a National IT Policy and/ or Strategy?
   No. The Policy is under development. There is a National IT Committee overseeing the policy's development. The strategy is expected to be developed once the policy is finalised.
4. What are the priorities in the National IT Strategy?
   The priorities will be identified latter. At present Department of Information Systems & Technology Management Services (DISTMS), in the Ministry of Finance, has drafted strategy for the Civil Service.
5. What are the institutions in charge of elaborating/implementing the strategy?
   At present there are several organisations namely, DISTMS, Ministry of Information, and the National Research Council of Malawi who have IT strategy elaboration and implementation activities as part of their portfolio of activities. At present DISTMS is coordinating national IT policy formulation. It is expected that the policy will also consider the institutional arrangement for its implementation and for the elaboration and implementation of the National IT Strategy.?
6. What are the three main constraints and three main opportunities to IT as a factor of development in the country?
   Opportunities
   - Ability to improve production and delivery or distribution of products.
   - Ability to efficiently manage resources.
   - Ability to provide a spectrum of markets for both the salers and buyers.
   Constraints
   - Insufficient IT infrastructure ( Telecommunications and electricity) especially in the rural areas, the largest part of Malawi.
   - IT Human resources. At present there are very few with the relevant IT skills & knowledge. The global demand for IT Skills are worsening the situation as some Malawian IT experts opt to work out side the country. Furthermore the AIDS scourge has its toll on IT human resources.
   - Absence of programs or activities to sustain the supply of IT hardware and software to users who otherwise can not easily afford the technology. For example, consider a program to sustain supply of computers in all Malawi Schools.
7. What are the primary constraints that need to be addressed as priority for human resources and capacity development in the country?
   - Sustainable supply source of computers in education & health
   - IT awareness programs
   - Specialized IT training programs for IT personnel
   - Availability of IT tools to IT personnel
8. What priorities would you need support in implementing?
   - A project to sustain computers in education
   - IT awareness workshops
   - Specialized IT training for IT personnel
   - .Procurement of IT tools for IT personnel

Private Sector

1. What are the three main business associations/organizations in the country?
   - Press Coorporation,
   - Agricultural Development Markecting Corporation
   - National Insurance Corporation
2. What role are they effectively playing regarding IT strategy priorities?
   Since the priorities are not yet agreed to , and at present there is no proper coordination, it is not easy to answer this question.
3. What is the contribution expected from the private sector to the implementation of IT
   Strategy?
   The vision is that the private sector should participate in the preparation of the strategy, and then contribute to IT Human Resources development, IT research and development, and internet service and information provisions.
4. What areas in ICTs would be critical for foreign investment?
   - Software Development
   - Hardware assembling
   - IT infrastructure, both telecommunications and electrical power supply.

People / Connectivity

1. Who are the most important users of Internet in your country?
   Research to categorise the users is underway. But the results are too late for this report.

Others

1. Who are the donors that support ICT projects in your country and what type of projects do they support?
   Some of the donors are:
   UNDP - Support sustainable development network program which plans to provide internet to the rural sector over and above the current provision of Internet to the urban areas. Also supports IT tools procurement, and IT Human Resources Development
   World Bank- Supports IT tools procurement
   - Support IT human Resources Development
   - Supports Management Information Systems Development and maintenance (of much importance at present is the financial management Information Systems (IFMIS))
   USAID - Supports IT tools procurement
   - Support IT human Resources Development
   - Supports Management Information Systems Development and (Currently they are assisting National Audit with electronic auditing)
   DFID - Supports IT tools procurement
   - Support IT human Resources Development
   - Supports Management Information Systems Development and maintenance (of much importance at present is the financial management Information Systems (IFMIS))
2. What are you expecting from your country's participation to the workshop?
   Exposure, human networking, sharing of knowledge and experience with other African and Asian participants, and e-governance
3. Do you have substantive results/lessons learnt/practices that you would like to present during the workshop?
   Yes. We would like to share the results of the communications sector liberalization, the results of internet utilisation, the results of bringing an IT awareness to top Civil Servants, the bottlenecks of formulating an IT policy, the complications being faced without proper IT coordination and cooperation, the complications being faced to develop a government website.

RESEARCH METHOD:

Book research
Interviews

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Most of the information has been provided by the following individuals:

Mr. K. J. Zidana, Apprenticeship Specialists, TEVET, MALAWI
Mr. Charles Mataya Phiri, Deputy Proncipal, Soche Technical College, Malawi
Miss L. B. Ngondo, Lecturer, Salima Technical College, Malawi
Mr. H. L. K. Liwambano, Deputy Proncipal, Namitete Technical College, Malawi
Mr. A. Joabe, Assistant Manager Investor Service, MIPA, Malawi
Mr. Jaliele Banda, Bursar, Lilongwe Technical College, Malawi
Mr. C. D. matemba, Networks Engineer, MACRA, Malawi
Mr. C. J. Mchikoma, Senior Assistant Statistician, Ministry of Education, Malawi
Mr. L. Kachikopa, Chief Economist, National Economic Council, Malawi

REFERENCES:

"Educational Statistics Year book", 1999, Ministry of Education, Malawi
"Malawi Communications Policy", 1998
"Economic report", 2001, National Economic Council, Malawi
"1998 Malawi Population & Housing Census report of Final Census Results", December 2000, National Statistics Office, Malawi