This is a historical achievement and the beginning of a new era of economic management of the Malawi economy. The HIPC completion point has been achieved because Malawi has made satisfactory progress in implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and has maintained satisfactory macroeconomic policies as evidenced by the successful performance of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) supported by the IMF. Under this programme Malawi achieved completion targets in the areas of economic governance, public expenditure management, safety nets and microfinance.

The achievement of the HIPIC completion for Malawi means that the resources which the government was using to service foreign debt will be available to government to use achieving the Millennium Development Goals through the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy in order to alleviate massive poverty in this country.

The total sum of money that will be available to Government is US$100 million every year. Currently the Government has been spending about 25% of our total budget to service foreign debt. This figure is greater than what Government spends in Agriculture, Health and Education combined !!!

Reaching the completion point is a great achievement and we wish to commend the Government for its determination and courage to get the economy of Malawi to this level. We also wish to thank the Executive Directors of the Boards of the IMF and World Bank together with their staffs and the Malawi team lead by the Honorable Minister of Finance Dr Goodwall Gondwe for the excellent cooperation and effort made for Malawi to reach the Completion Point.

The benefits of this debt relief include the following:
 A build up of foreign resources
 An improved balance sheet of the Reserve Bank of Malawi through a decrease in the net domestic assets and an increase of the net foreign asserts
 More resources available to government for pro-poor expenditure through the budget

The biggest challenge for every now Malawian is to ensure that our Government makes use of the now available resources for the benefit of all deserving Malawians. We must all hold our Government accountable to the people of Malawi. Every Malawian must now rise to the challenge and face the reality before all of us. Let us Malawians change our passive mindset and begin to take an active role in the economic governance on our country Malawi. We also need to work extra hard in all our endevours. Hard work is what Malawians have been known for in the past.

We believe this could not be possible without the grace from God, we therefore call upon the Faith Community to organise thanks giving prayers to the Almighty God for He has answered the prayer of all Malawians.

MEJN was established to campaign and advocate for debt cancellation for Malawi. We are therefore delighted that our efforts have finally borne the fruit.

May God continue bless Malawi and keep it a land of peace!