Bringing Sanity to Malawi's Engineering Industry
"Engineering is a dynamic industry that calls for the players to set new targets and uphold professionalism to better themselves," Wengawenga said.
BLANTYRE, Malawi - The Malawi Engineering Institution (MEI) says developing a strategic plan will help bring "sanity and efficiency" to the local engineering industry over the next five years, writes Steven Godfrey Mkweteza.
"We want to bring about sanity and efficiency in the industry, hence, the development of the strategic plan that will also guide our activities," MEI registrar and CEO Arthur Wengawenga said last week during a stakeholders meeting in Blantyre.
He said the lack of a plan has caused "enormous gaps" in the engineering sector.
"Engineering is a dynamic industry that calls for the players to set new targets and uphold professionalism to better themselves," Wengawenga said.
The strategic plan will help the industry be competitive locally and globally, he said.
"As a regulator of engineering practices we have a critical role to play in ensuring that players are meeting or consistently following the rules and regulations to monitor high quality services that will be competitive on the international market," Wengawenga said.
He noted the institution has seen poor workmanship in recent years that "has brought bad image" for MEI.
"For example, we have recently witnessed structures being destroyed by catastrophes such as cyclones because of poor workmanship and poor quality of standards," he said.
The meeting was held to get input into the document, which Wengawenga said will be MEI's first strategic plan since its formation in 2021. It will run from 2024 to 2029.
MEI was formed in 2021 to regulate engineers in Malawi.
"We want to bring sanity back to the industry," Wengawenga said.