As Beijing launched its Fifteenth Five-Year Plan, Malawi stands at the crossroads of industrial ambition and democratic reform.
This moment offers Lilongwe a rare chance to harness China’s pivot toward technology and green growth in accelerating Vision 2063, while safeguarding national transparency and sovereignty.
When China unveiled the plan – from 2026 to 2030, it signalled a global ambition defined by high-end innovation, green energy systems, and greater self-reliance.
To the casual reader, the plan’s official language may appear abstract, but beneath it sits a disciplined framework for investment and execution that Malawi can leverage for its own modernisation agenda.
For Malawi, this is less a challenge and more an opening.
Over the next five years, China aims to evolve from the world’s factory into its laboratory. Its plan prioritises scientific self-sufficiency, renewable energy, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and agricultural modernisation.
Innovation is treated not as a luxury but as a necessity. For a developing nation like Malawi, this shift creates clear avenues for cooperation that align directly with Vision 2063 and the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan.
At the 2024 Forum on China–Africa Cooperation Summit in Beijing, President Xi Jinping and former President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera elevated China–Malawi relations to a strategic partnership. This was more than diplomatic theatre.
It formalised a commitment to deeper engagement in agriculture, telecommunications, infrastructure and trade. These are the very areas underpinning Malawi’s long-term development goals.
In February 2025, China’s new ambassador, Lu Xu, reaffirmed this trajectory, pledging stronger diplomatic ties, expanded economic cooperation and efforts to attract more Chinese investors to Malawian opportunities. That continuity helps turn political pledges into practical implementation.
Since establishing diplomatic relations in 2007, Malawi has received about US$1.5 billion in Chinese financing. The partnership, once dominated by large infrastructure projects, is now maturing.
Visible landmarks such as the Parliament Building, Bingu National Stadium, and rehabilitated stretches of the M1 Road testify to this first phase.
The next phase promises something more systemic. It moves from individual projects to national production capacity and from consumption to value creation.
China’s new plan emphasises technological self-sufficiency and the creation of “digital and green corridors” through the Belt and Road Initiative. These priorities align neatly with Malawi’s emerging goals.
The Digital Malawi Program Phase I, funded by the World Bank, has already trained more than 19000 young people, women and elderly citizens across 10 tech hubs and extended internet connectivity to over 500 public institutions.
Its successor, the US$150 million Digital Malawi Acceleration Project, will expand fibre networks nationwide and support digital entrepreneurship.
Here, Chinese expertise in AI-driven agriculture, solar systems and data management can accelerate progress through targeted pilot projects and joint ventures. Malawi can position itself not as a passive consumer of imported technology but as a co-creator of innovation.
The FAO–China South–South Cooperation Phase II, launched in November 2024, illustrates this shift. With a US$1.3 million budget, it deploys five long-term Chinese experts to collaborate with Malawian specialists in horticulture modernisation, mechanisation and capacity building, including study tours to China.
This reflects a model of genuine knowledge exchange rather than one-directional technology transfer.
Malawi has also secured transformative commitments in mining and industrialisation. In July 2025, the government finalised US$12 billion worth of mining and infrastructure agreements with Chinese investors. A US$7 billion deal with Hunan Sunwalk to develop titanium extraction and processing facilities in Salima is now the largest foreign investment in the country’s mining history.
A separate US$5 billion agreement with China’s Xidian International Stock Exchange will establish a Special Economic Zone in Chipoka, expected to attract US$1 billion in foreign direct investment in its first year.
These ventures signal a new type of cooperation focused on value addition, skills development and technology transfer rather than aid or construction alone.
Agriculture, the backbone of Malawian livelihoods, remains central to this relationship. In October, Ambassador Lu Xu pledged fertiliser, agricultural inputs and technical support to strengthen modernisation efforts. Chinese expertise in rice and vegetable cultivation has already boosted yields among smallholders. The next task is scaling these successes nationwide.
Malawi is also aligning Belt and Road Initiative projects with priority programmes under MIP-1. These include the Shire Valley Transformation Project, the Malawi Air Travel Development and Modernisation Programme, and major railway rehabilitation. Increasingly, Chinese financing is directed toward strategic national programmes rather than isolated projects.
Critics often argue that Chinese partnerships prioritise regime stability over democratic reform. Malawi’s recent governance reforms challenge that assumption. Under former President Chakwera, the country renewed participation in the Open Government Partnership and introduced crucial anti-corruption measures between 2023 and 2025.
These included amendments to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Act, strengthening the Ombudsman’s Office, drafting the Whistleblower Protection Act, and establishing the Mining and Minerals Regulatory Authority. Such measures fortify transparency at the precise moment large-scale investments demand it.
Parliamentary budget scrutiny now includes public submissions, and proceedings are broadcast live to enhance accountability. The Access to Information Act mandates proactive disclosure by all procuring entities, shifting transparency from aspiration to practice.
Digital governance introduces an additional layer of oversight. The Inclusive Digital Transformation for Malawi project, launched in April 2024 with UNDP support, is developing a secure and inclusive digital identity system to improve data governance and reduce corruption. In combination with Chinese technological expertise, the potential for strengthening accountability is significant.
A country with only 20 percent internet penetration, partnering with the world leader in digital infrastructure, can leapfrog administrative inefficiencies while protecting democratic systems.
The energy sector also illustrates these emerging synergies. The 50MW Salima Solar Power Project, whose first 10MW phase is expected this month, will diversify Malawi’s heavy dependence on hydropower.
The initial phase, supported by Japanese financing, will be complemented by Chinese participation in subsequent stages and integrated into a broader green-energy framework for the region. Battery energy storage systems will enable Malawi to acquire not just hardware but the systems thinking at the heart of Vision 2063.
Trade between the two countries continues to deepen. In 2024, total trade reached US$259 million, with China granting zero-tariff treatment for all Malawian exports from December of that year.
For an economy seeking export expansion, this access is significant. Malawian soybeans began arriving at Dalian Port in 2024, and negotiations are underway to open Chinese markets for Malawian peanuts. This shifts the narrative from dependency to productivity.
Yet vigilance remains essential. Weak governance could easily recreate past mistakes. Malawi’s ongoing institutional reforms are therefore indispensable. Development and democracy must advance together.
Foreign Affairs Minister George Chaponda recently described China as a “reliable partner”, citing the US$20 million debt write-off in 2024 and China’s policy requiring that 90 percent of labour on Chinese projects be local.
Former President Chakwera’s emphasis on rapid implementation signals impatience with bureaucratic inertia and elite capture. It places focus on results that citizens can see and measure.
Modernisation and democracy need not be opposing trajectories. China’s developmental model relies on centralised discipline. Malawi must achieve transformation through democratic institutions. The country can emulate China’s strategic planning without replicating its political system.
Vision 2063 provides that democratic scaffolding. Its 10-year implementation cycle offers the strategic discipline of a five-year plan but within a framework of public accountability. As global power dynamics shift, Malawi’s opportunity is not one of imitation but of innovation. China’s Fifteenth Five-Year Plan illuminates this potential.
The US$12 billion in new investments reflect a partnership founded on shared value and institutional strength rather than dependency. The deepening of governance reform ensures that progress benefits citizens rather than elites.
The debate is no longer whether Malawi should engage China. The partnership is established and mutually reinforcing.
The real question is whether Malawi will shape that relationship according to its own Vision 2063 priorities. Evidence suggests it is doing so.
Collins Mtika is a veteran journalist and director of the Malawi Centre for Investigative Journalism. He reports for the Mail & Guardian from Mzuzu, Malawi