Guebuza Urges Women to Increase Production

29 April 2011

Maputo — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Friday urged Mozambican women to remain committed to increasing production and productivity, in order to confront the high cost of living.

Speaking at the opening session of a Congress of the Organisation of Mozambican Women (OMM), which is affiliated to the ruling Frelimo Party, Guebuza stressed that the cost of living depends on a range of factors, some of which are beyond Mozambique’s control, such as the rising costs of oil and food on the world market.

To cope with this, he said, Mozambicans should increase their own production and make better use of the country’s resources.

“We should also commit ourselves to greater use of the potential of the regional and international markets, as well as the boundless potential that information and communication technologies offer us”, he added.

Guebuza called for improved research in the main sectors of the economy, and the more effective exploitation of the country’s agricultural, livestock and fisheries potential.

He urged that examples of increased production, including the substitution of imported foodstuffs, should be “divulged, replicated and popularised”.

Guebuza said that women working in the public sector should react to price rises by “fighting against red tape and the spirit of apathy and drift”. It was crucial to reduce the costs of bureaucracy “which steal time, consume resources, reduce productivity and make services more expensive”.

The OMM, he declared, had the capacity to mobilise and work with the grass roots of society to overcome the challenges imposed by the cost of living.

The organisation, he urged, should strive to recruit more members, raise its visibility and strengthen its financial capacity. “Over the years, your organisation has proved itself an indispensable platform for training cadres, and a source for recruiting women for sectors of activity where they serve as reference points and as encouragement for girls to attend school, and to attend and complete specialist levels of training”, he said.

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