31 May 2011
Maputo — Mozambican Prime Minister Aires Ali said on Tuesday that moments of uncertainty in the world economy make necessary greater coordination between the state and business, in that neither of them is free from the effects of financial crises.
Speaking in the German city of Munich, at an Economic Conference on Mozambique, Ali said that such coordination is indispensable to mitigate potential factors of social instability, resulting from worsening living conditions.
But he urged business people attending the conference “to look at the future with optimism, seeing the crisis as an opportunity to expand into new markets, while remaining aware of the importance of social peace and harmony to create an attractive business environment”.
Ali said that the conference, part of his four day visit to the German state of Bavaria, allows Mozambique to display its enormous potential and attract further investment. The government’s hope was that the conference would improve knowledge of Mozambique among German businesses, and serve as a platform to establish mutual trust. He pointed to Mozambique’s “vast range” of natural resources, its forests, its lengthy coastline and its mineral wealth.
Despite the international crises of recent years, Mozambique had continued to record high growth rates when compared with other countries in the region, thanks in part to flows of direct foreign investment, particularly in mining, manufacturing industry, tourism, agriculture, agro-processing and services.
“The increase in the flow of Direct Foreign Investment to Mozambique reflects the growing prestige of the country”, said Ali, “as well as its good relations with both developed and developing countries”.
He told his audience that in the 2006-2010 period a total of 1,200 private investment projects (national and foreign) had been approved with a total value estimated at 18.8 billion US dollars.
This sum includes German private investment of 8.1 million dollars in 14 projects with the potential to create more than 3,000 new jobs for Mozambicans.
Ali also pointed to the undertaking given by Germany, at bilateral negotiations in Maputo in May 2009, that it would maintain its support for Mozambique’s development programmes, with a focus on technical and financial cooperation. At the time, Germany allocated a package of 113.5 million euros (about 164 million US dollars) for the 2009/2011 period.
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