CIAO DATE: 07/2009
April 2009
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
In Blantyre, Malawi, population and economic growth are placing great stress on the city’s infrastructure systems. As Malawi’s industrial capital, long-term improvements to Blantyre’s infrastructure are necessary to generate employment, strengthen rural-urban market linkages, and improve the regional and global competitiveness of the city’s industries. This study shows that the cost and inefficiency of transporting goods internationally is the greatest infrastructure constraint on business activity in Blantyre. As a landlocked country, Malawi faces high transport costs that are a serious impediment to trade. Thus, there is great need to reduce the price and time it takes to transport goods to, from and within Malawi to ensure that the country’s main industries (a majority of which have branches or are headquartered in Blantyre) can compete internationally. The high cost and unreliability of electricity was ranked by the city’s businesses as the second most significant infrastructure constraint on business. Smaller businesses located on the outskirts of the city face even greater struggles with respect to electricity.
Resource link: Assessing Infrastructure Constraints on Business Activity in Blantyre, Malawi [PDF] - 894K