The President of the water-rich African country of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera, yesterday visited the Rhine-Main region in Germany with a delegation from his home country. The President was accompanied by his wife, First Lady Monica Chakwera, his Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Gladys Tembo, Minister of Transport Jacob Hara and the Ambassador of the Republic of Malawi in Berlin, Joseph John Mpinganjira.
The group boarded a passenger ship of the inland shipping association BDB affiliated company Frankfurter Personalschifffahrt in Offenbach Anton Nauheimer (Primus line). Also on board were the mayor of Offenbach, Felix Schwenke, and the mayor of Frankfurt, Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg. In his speech to the delegation, BDB chairman Martin Staats informed the delegation about the performance of inland shipping in Germany and Europe and about shipbuilding.
Internships and training
The background to the visit is that Malawi wants to make more use of Lake Malawi, which with a surface area of 29,600 km² is about nine times larger than Lake Constance and one of the largest inland waters in the world. The government of the country wants to improve the facilities for the population living on the water and also increase the capacity of freight and passenger shipping on the lake. In order to support Malawi, the BDB Chairman and the President signed an agreement for internships and training related to the inland waterway system and port structure in Germany.
