Italy reaffirms readiness to cooperate with Mozambican business sector

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Italy reaffirms readiness to cooperate with Mozambican business sector

5:44 CAT | 05 Mar 2021

Photo: Câmara de Comércio Moçambique-Itália

The Chairman of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), Agostinho Vuma, recently held a meeting with Gianni Bardini, Italy’s new ambassador to Mozambique.

Ambassador Bardini expressed Italy’s readiness to continue to collaborate with businesspeople in Mozambique.

The meeting was also attended by the CTA Board of Directors and representatives of the Mozambique-Italy Chamber of Commerce.

It was indicated as apparent to the CTA that Italy “asserts itself as an important economic partner in Mozambique, not only in oil & gas, but also with opportunities for collaboration in many other sectors,” CTA Chairman Agostinho Vuma said.

In turn, the new Italian ambassador to Mozambique pointed out that: “Italy can contribute significantly to several sectors, such as agricultural mechanisation, processing and transformation of agricultural products, where it has experience in quality and efficiency; in the renewable energy sector, which already has Italian companies present, and in a key area for the development of the country and of SMEs, which are the future of a country where industrialisation is fundamental to job creation.”

Italy is Mozambique’s largest European investor, with US$3.5 billion in investments from 2012 to 2019, and the third globally over the same period.

In 2019 alone, Italy invested US$288 million in Mozambique, making itself Mozambique’s third-largest investor after the United Arab Emirates (US$980 million) and the Netherlands (US$899 million).

The oil and gas sector predominates In business relations – witness ENI’s investments in Area 4 and prospective new blocks in Angoche through the Coral FLNG project, which will produce the first gas in the north of the country and starts next year, and the presence of SAIPEM, in which EPC has the largest contract and largest construction project in Africa (two liquefaction trains in Area 1 in Afungi).

The intense diplomatic and economic activity of recent years is based on historic ties of friendship between the two countries. A signal moment was the business mission that accompanied the President of the Republic to Rome and Milan on July 9-11, 2019, resulting in the signing of memoranda of understanding with Assolombarda, ANIMP, CCMI, as well as with Assomineraria and Confindustria.

This joins a historic relationship with the Italian association system and the signing of partnership agreements between Italian and Mozambican companies.

For CTA, Italy is a strong and recognised partner not only in international relations, with the first international representation agreement signed 12 years ago, but also on the basis of its current, recently appointed internal “team”: Maria Assunção Abdula, deputy president of CTA, also deputy-president of CCMI; Simone Santi, president of CTA’s Natural Resources and Energy Department, also president of CCMI; and Dina Pascolini, deputy president of the Security Department, represents Renco, one of the most significant members of CCMI and the Italian business community in Mozambique.

Source: CTA / Press Release