Mozambique: IPEME's Consultative Council meets in Macaneta
File photo: CTA
The private sector in Mozambique believes that the Anadarko final investment decision announced yesterday would lead to greater monetary circulation and, therefore, lower financial costs in the domestic market.
Such was the position outlined by President of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), Agostinho Vuma, who spoke to the press on Monday after having visited the US-Africa Business Summit, taking place from today until Friday in Maputo.
“With the final investment decision of Anadarko, Moçambique may see greater circulation of financial mass which could lower the cost of money because the money will be in the market,” Vuma said, adding that the “tight” monetary policy of the Bank of Mozambique was not favouring circulation of money in the market.
According to Vuma, the central bank’s measures limit the participation of the Mozambican private sector in the African Opportunities and Growth Act (AGOA), which in 2000 approved a range of products for preferential access to the US market.
Mozambique benefits from this US preferential market access mechanism, which came into effect on October 1, 2000. The first phase of AGOA ended on September 30, 2008, with the US government extending it to 2015 and, recently, extending it for 10 more years.
Vuma says there is nevertheless room for US banks and hotels to establish themselves in Mozambique.
“There is still no American hotel in Mozambique, and a great diversity of [US] businesses could thrive under Mozambican investment law,” Vuma said.
Of the US-Africa Business Summit , the CTA president said he hoped the meeting would leverage more investment in Africa, especially in Mozambique, as well as helping the balance of exports, which is to the country’s great disadvantage.
“The summit is going to work like a snowball, which will make more investment roll into Mozambique,” Vuma said.
The event, which runs until Friday, has about 1,500 participants, including government officials, national and foreign businessmen and public and private institutions.
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