Mozambique Elections: Police deny Samora Machel Junior’s accusations and pledge to demand ...
Former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano said yesterday that the crisis between the government of Mozambique and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB), triggered in April, was due to a slip-up by the Maputo authorities.
At stake is the concealment of debts from public accounts by the Mozambican government, which it has now admitted and which have raised public debt, now amounting to US$11,660 million dollars, of which US$9,890 million is external, from 42 percent to 70 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Speaking yesterday to Lusa on the sidelines of the Mozambique-Portugal Conference in Cascais, Chissano admitted that the “inadvertence” of the Mozambican government had “affected” the country’s economic credibility, already fragile from the military crisis in the north.
“Some violence resurfaced, which, although localized, caused difficulties which in a way dampened investor enthusiasm. But true friends know that this is something cyclical, and that there have been more difficult moments which it was possible to overcome,” he said.
“There is also the difficulty on the economic front that was created by – I do not know what to call it, because these are issues still under investigation, and I do not like to put labels on things. Perhaps the most I can say is that there was a slip or inadvertence, or something that created mistrust among donors and the Bretton Woods institutions, which is also creating tension in the country,” Chissano said.
For Chissano, these are issues that “should be viewed with great patience and a will towards solutions rather than punishments” in order to get over this phase.
The Mozambican president from 1986 to 2005 argued that the credibility of Mozambique abroad “needs not be re-created” since it “has not disappeared”, admitting, however, that all depends on the “goodwill” of those examining the “error”.
“It depends on the goodwill when addressing an error, if we may say, one which cannot discredit all the confidence created. The base is there”, argued Chissano argued.
At the conference, organised by Mozefo, a Mozambican institution that supports dialogue and action for the development of Mozambique, Chissano highlighted the “economic potential” of the country, which now has even more opportunities following major oil and gas discoveries.
Appealing to Portuguese entrepreneurs to invest in Mozambique, the former Mozambican head of the state numbered opportunities in staff and professional training, infrastructure, ports, agriculture, livestock, forestry and agribusiness. “We have 35 million hectares of arable land.”
Tourism along a 2,750 km Indian Ocean coastline, and especially oil and gas “put Mozambique on the investment route”. Goods transport “especially for the interior of Southern Africa” and energy are other areas with investment potential Chissano listed.
“But the challenges for now are peace and the consolidation of democracy and the rule of law, the main pillars that feed into each other,” he says, adding that it is in difficult moments like these that a country “sees its friends”, those who can provide “added value, complementarities and business partnerships” with the private sector.
“Those who want to invest in Mozambique must not retreat in the face of difficulties,” the former head of state concluded.
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