MITC Chief Executive Officer Paul Kwengwere told Zodiak Online on Friday that of the four industrial parks in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu, funds are available to make Chigumula economic zone ready for investment in the next 24 months.

Kwengwere while indicating that atleast 10 local investors have shown interest to open industries in the parks, says the center envisions to have more SEZ in all the prospective secondary cities to ensure the country realises the Agenda 2063 industrialisation dream.

Kwengwere says currently funds are available to make Chigumula Economic Zone ready for investment in the next 24 months.

"We have some funding to make sure that we finalise at least one within the coming 12 to 24 months. And other three, we still have a little bit of funding and we are also trying to work with some private partners who can help to help in developing the land," Kwengwere said.

Meanwhile, an economic expert Gilbert Kachamba, thinks taking too long to develop the parks clearly shows government is lacking  seriousness.

"It looks like we are not serious they way we are doing things because we have been talking about these SEZ for quite along  time now. So to be talking that we will be having our first SEZ in 24 months, I think somebody somewhere is not doing his/her job. We need to align all the activities that we are doing with the Agenda 2063," he said.

Kachamba has then tipped government to firstly ensure the country has reliable electricity if the investors are to be attracted in the zones.

Through strong manufacturing industry driven by productive and commercially vibrant agriculture and mining sectors under Agenda 2063, Malawi dreams to become a middle income economy.

SEZ are the areas in a country that are subject to different economic regulations than other regions within the same country. The SEZ economic regulations tend to be conducive to and attract Foreign Direct Direct Investment (FDI).