55. The Workshop recommends:
(a) To the Governments of Zambia and Malawi:
to speed up the preparation of clear national policies, strategies, plans and legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks for commercial aquaculture development and, while preparing aquaculture subsector development policies and strategies, to give due attention to defining financial incentives and promotional instruments to use in order to encourage investment, especially by the private sector, in commercial aquaculture and to ensure full participation of all stakeholders including those from allied industries (feed manufacturing, hatcheries, processing and marketing, etc.) in the process;
to support start-up aquaculture and allied industries such as private hatcheries and feed mills in their pilot stage with clear and simple regulations as well as fiscal incentives such as tax exemptions, tax holidays, exemptions of import duty on machinery and other necessary inputs like basic feed ingredients;
to define deliberate clear policies to guide financing institutions on the borrowing and lending for start-up industries such as commercial aquaculture;
to facilitate the establishment of models of economic and financial feasibility of commercial aquaculture ventures and allied industries. These models would allow financial institutions to objectively evaluate investment proposals in aquaculture and allied industries;
to facilitate borrowers for commercial operations to access loans by looking into the possibilities of using loan guaranties and special interest rates;
to promote and support research and preservation of indigenous species, and to strengthen the research-extension farmer linkages in order to ensure a proper and effective dissemination of research findings;
to consistently look for means of organizing study tours and attending international meetings and conferences by government officers, extensionists and the private sector in commercial aquaculture and allied industries, to other countries in the region with the aim of exchanging experiences and allowing them to better serve the aquaculture sector development;
to create awareness and appreciation of aquaculture products in order to increase consumer demand at local and national levels;
to designate ADZs (Aquaculture Development Zones) and EPZs (Economic Preferential Zones) with fast track mechanisms in place for investors.
(b) To FAO:
to urgently document the sources of financing and existing funding mechanisms for commercial aquaculture in the region, create awareness among farmers of their existence and opportunities they provide, and to disseminate this information widely including through banks and national or subregional workshops;
to assist the Governments of Zambia and Malawi in the establishment or strengthening of national-level commercial fish farmers’ associations and the strengthening of their lobby force and linkages of existing regional networks of commercial fish farmers. This assistance would be provided within the framework of the "Technical Cooperation Programmes" (TCP). Requests would come from countries;
to assist the Governments of Zambia and Malawi to create awareness among NGOs, possible donor agencies, funding institutions and investors on the role of commercial aquaculture in supporting economic growth with the aim of seeking the extension and increase of their assistance and support to the subsector;
with the contribution from other development agencies, to assist the Government of Zambia and Malawi in the establishment of national aquaculture technical information resource centres that, in time, will provide fee-for-service extension/technical support and information;
to continue to regularly monitor, review and analyse what has been done in terms of commercial aquaculture development in Africa and elsewhere with the aim of extracting and disseminating success stories of aquaculture investment including policy development and implementation, and financial and economic successes and failures;
to assist the Governments of Zambia and Malawi to work on the necessary attributes for Zambia and Malawi to be able to export aquaculture products to the European Union.
