President Dr Lazarus Maccathy Chakwera has received rare praise from the Biden administration for his relentless efforts to stem graft in the country.
President Dr Chakwera is in the United States for United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said President Dr Chakwera has strengthened the graft busting body, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) so that it is able to fight corruption.
Blinken said this at a Democracy Delivers event hosted by United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) administrator Samantha Power in New York where Chakwera is attending the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (Unga).
Blinken said Chakwera was doing all he can to ensure the fight against corruption is strengthened.
He said: "America will do all it can to support governments that govern justly."
Blinken cited the recently approved compact of over $350 million Malawi is set to sign with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in Washington DC on September 28 2022 as part of its commitment to supporting Malawi.
In her speech, Power said: "He [Chakwera] has embraced the agenda of fighting corruption while focusing on developing Malawi's agriculture, mining and tourism sectors.
"Due to recent advances, Malawi will soon sign an MCC compact that offers it significant news resources. MCC calls Malawi one of the best performers on its political and economic scorecard and I spoke with President Lazarus Chakwera about how Usaid can support further gains."
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On his part, Chakwera assured the US government of his administration's commitment to fighting corruption, but said the anti-graft war needs financial and technical support.
He also said Malawi has enacted laws establishing the International Commercial Arbitration Centre to create multiple dispute resolution mechanisms that strengthen democracy.
"We recently passed laws that establish a special court of financial crimes to ensure that cases relating to such crimes are expedited.
"We welcome support for research capacitation to give Malawians the wherewithal to make these responsive innovations work," said the President.
Chakwera said such legal initiatives need financial and technical support to popularise them among the citizenry.
The President further said democratic values are under threat by recurring insecurity, nationalism, geo-political tensions and extreme political ideologies globally.
He, however, boasted about Malawi being a model on democratic values, citing as an example, laws promoting gender equality and women empowerment which require a 50-50 representation in public appointments.
Meanwhile, Chakwera is today expected to address the assembly this afternoon. The session opened on September 13 2022 with the first high level general debate commencing on Tuesday this week.
Prior to the President's UNGA address today, he has been holding several side meetings with numerous investors and potential development partners, some of which have committed to working with Malawi.
