Mozambique on diplomatic offensive to lure FDI
Thématique :
mozambique
By Charles Mangwiro, Reuters, 11 Mar 2008
Mozambique plans to intensify its efforts to lure more foreign investment inflows to cut poverty and accelerate economic growth, Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Oldemiro Baloi, told Reuters on Tuesday.
The newly appointed Baloi, who served as Trade and Industry Minister under former President Joaquim Chissano from 1995 to 2000, said industrial revolution was his main agenda.
"We want a strategy that bears fruits, we want to attract more investments and boost mega projects including the small-scale industry which we want to flourish at an accelerated pace", he told Reuters shortly after being sworn into office.
Baloi replaced Alcinda Abreu, who was fired on Monday along with Justice Minister Esperanca Machavela, Transport and Communications Minister Antonio Mungwambe, and Environment Minister Luciano de Castro.
Mozambique has been struggling to rebuild its economy which almost collapsed after independence from Portugual in 1975, before the country slid into a 17-year civil war that devastated its agriculture-based economy.
Foreign investors slowly returned in the 1990s, with inflows picking up after Armando Guebuza was elected president in 2005.
Guebuza, a West-leaning technocrat, has made luring foreign investment a cornerstone of his economic programme.
Greater investment inflows would help Mozambique hit its 7 percent GDP growth target for 2008 and help ease inflation to within single digits, the government said. The economy grew by 7.5 percent in 2007.
The country's natural resources and tourism potential are likely to remain the main draw for foreign investors. A number of Western oil firms are drilling offshore in Mozambique's Rovuma Basin.
Mozambique also wants to attract investment for a planned upgrade of the Cahora Bassa hydro-electricity plant in northern Tete province, which was neglected during the civil war.
Cahora Bassa has potential output of 14,000 MW of hydro power, but currently produces 2,075 MW, 60 percent of which goes to South Africa's state firm Eskom.
Mozambique plans to intensify its efforts to lure more foreign investment inflows to cut poverty and accelerate economic growth, Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Oldemiro Baloi, told Reuters on Tuesday.
The newly appointed Baloi, who served as Trade and Industry Minister under former President Joaquim Chissano from 1995 to 2000, said industrial revolution was his main agenda.
"We want a strategy that bears fruits, we want to attract more investments and boost mega projects including the small-scale industry which we want to flourish at an accelerated pace", he told Reuters shortly after being sworn into office.
Baloi replaced Alcinda Abreu, who was fired on Monday along with Justice Minister Esperanca Machavela, Transport and Communications Minister Antonio Mungwambe, and Environment Minister Luciano de Castro.
Mozambique has been struggling to rebuild its economy which almost collapsed after independence from Portugual in 1975, before the country slid into a 17-year civil war that devastated its agriculture-based economy.
Foreign investors slowly returned in the 1990s, with inflows picking up after Armando Guebuza was elected president in 2005.
Guebuza, a West-leaning technocrat, has made luring foreign investment a cornerstone of his economic programme.
Greater investment inflows would help Mozambique hit its 7 percent GDP growth target for 2008 and help ease inflation to within single digits, the government said. The economy grew by 7.5 percent in 2007.
The country's natural resources and tourism potential are likely to remain the main draw for foreign investors. A number of Western oil firms are drilling offshore in Mozambique's Rovuma Basin.
Mozambique also wants to attract investment for a planned upgrade of the Cahora Bassa hydro-electricity plant in northern Tete province, which was neglected during the civil war.
Cahora Bassa has potential output of 14,000 MW of hydro power, but currently produces 2,075 MW, 60 percent of which goes to South Africa's state firm Eskom.
