Japan donates US$8 million for vocational education in Mozambique

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Japan donates US$8 million for vocational education in Mozambique

12:07 CAT | 21 Aug 2018

The Government of Japan has donated about US$8 million for vocational training and rehabilitating and equipping three vocational training centres in Mozambique.

Refurbishment of the Machava centre in Maputo province, the Quelimane centre in Zambézia, and the Nacala centre in Nampula will begin this year and run through to 2020.

The donation will supply the centres with up-to-date equipment, with the aim of facilitating the establishment of national and foreign companies in the special economic zones and industrial free zones recently created in the country.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation José Pacheco, Japan’s Ambassador to Mozambique Toshio Ikeda and the representative of the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation (JICA) in Mozambique, Hiroaki Endo, signed the donation agreement in Maputo on Monday,

After the signing, Minister Pacheco said that the development of human resources would spread awareness of entrepreneurship and reduce unemployment and poverty in the country.

The minister added that the agreement was a government priority because it would remove barriers, make the Mozambican workforce more competitive and produce technicians who could run businesses.

“This donation represents a valuable contribution to the economic and social development efforts of the Mozambican government,” Pacheco said, noting that the offer is part of a series of cooperation projects with Japan.

The minister pointed to the construction of the first gas-fired combined-cycle thermal plant in southern Africa, in the Luís Cabral neighbourhood in Maputo, which will produce 106 megawatts of electricity from natural gas extracted in Pande and Temane in Inhambane.

The plant cost an estimated US$180 million, of which US$67 million was provided by the Japanese government and the remaining US$113 million by the Mozambican government.

At the signing, the Japanese ambassador said that the signing of the agreement brought to fruition the joint statement issued by President Nyusi and Prime Minister Sinzo Abe of Japan during the former’s visit to Japan in March 2017.

“The government of Japan understands the importance of human capital, especially the training of skilled labour here in Mozambique,” he said.

Source: O País