President Prof. Peter Mutharika has said his strong desire to turn lakeshore district of Mangochi into the tourism capital of Malawi like Mexico’s Acapulco by constructing state of the art international airport, a mega city and five-star hotel.

He made the revelation on Sunday at St. Augustine 3 Primary School ground in Mangochi where he held a victory rally to thank people in the district and the eastern region for voting him back into power and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) during last month’s Tripartite Elections.

Mutharika said everything concerning the multi-billion dollar project was set and that the project would roll out in not more than 30 days.

“I have good news for you: we have finally secured funds for the construction of the international airport and the five-star hotel projects we have been talking about and as I speak now, all that is remaining is for me to meet the president of a bank in Egypt to seal the deal,” the President disclosed.

He said once the two parties sign the contract the project would take off in the less than 30 days and that in the next few years Mangochi would be transformed.

“I would like to turn Mangochi into the Acapulco of Mexico but in Malawi and the heart of tourism in the whole Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region,” Mutharika told the gathering.

He indicated that he has met an investor last week on the construction of the Liwonde Dry Port and that the project would start soon.

Mutharika added that the DPP-led government would rehabilitate the Mangochi-Monkey Bay Road and Liwonde-Chingeni Road, besides the Makanjira and Mangochi-Chilipa roads whose construction would commence soon.

“However, for all this to happen, I need your support because without it there’s noting that I can do,” Mutharika said adding that, “We need to cultivate unity of purpose to achieve our common goal.”

The President thanked people of the Eastern Region and Mangochi in particular for giving him and the DPP the highest votes compared to the rest of the other political parties and their candidates.