President Arthur Peter Mutharika has appointed Dr. George Partridge as the new Minister of Industrialisation, Business, Trade and Tourism, marking another major step in his ongoing drive to streamline government and strengthen economic management through the inclusion of experienced private sector leaders.
The appointment, announced in a statement from the Office of the President and Cabinet on Thursday, takes immediate effect. It is part of a broader restructuring agenda that merges several key economic portfolios into one powerful ministry designed to improve coordination, cut bureaucracy and promote efficiency. The new ministry now brings together functions that were previously handled separately by the ministries responsible for industry, trade, business development and tourism — all central pillars of Malawi’s growth agenda.
Dr. Partridge served as Chief Executive Officer of the National Bank of Malawi from 2006 to 2016, before being elevated to Group Chief Executive of Press Corporation Limited, Malawi’s largest conglomerate with holdings in banking, telecommunications, energy and manufacturing. Prior to his career in commercial banking, he spent over a decade with the Reserve Bank of Malawi, where he rose to the position of Director. Over the years, he has also chaired the boards of Malawi Airlines and Sunbird Tourism Plc and played advisory roles on several national development and economic committees.
By bringing such a figure into government, President Mutharika appears intent on bridging the often-cited divide between policy formulation and private sector execution. The lean government initiative — one of the President’s key governance reforms — seeks to reduce the size and cost of the public administration while aligning ministries along practical and outcome-oriented lines. The consolidation of industrialisation, trade, business, and tourism under a single portfolio reflects an ambition to accelerate economic transformation and make policy delivery more coherent.
Dr. Partridge will be expected to spearhead policies that drive industrial growth, enhance trade competitiveness, stimulate private investment and revitalise tourism — a sector with vast but underutilised potential. His long career at the intersection of finance, enterprise and governance positions him to lead efforts to create a more enabling environment for business, improve Malawi’s export base and expand value addition in local production, while positioning the Southern African country as the ‘Warm Heart of Africa.’
