Íris de Brito: Authorities in Mozambique must be firm on debt audit report

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Íris de Brito: Authorities in Mozambique must be firm on debt audit report

10:44 CAT | 31 May 2017

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The director of the Mozambique consultancy New Capital told Lusa yesterday that the authorities have to take a very firm position on Kroll’s report on the hidden debt and lamented what she described as “a lot of corruption”.

In an interview with Lusa following her participation in the Horasis Global Meeting conference, which ends today in Cascais, near Lisbon, Iris de Brito said that “the state must take a very strong position, be it whatever it may, and defend the interests of Mozambicans”.

The international consultancy Kroll delivered its report on the hidden debt to the Attorney General’s Office in May, and a summary of the findings will be published in the coming weeks.

The dissemination and implementation of the report is one of the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) for resuming talks on continued financial aid for Mozambique, which is facing an economic and financial crisis following the disclosure of US$1.4 billion in unreported debt and the cut in international financing.

“The IMF and the WB are willing to help, they are friends of Mozambique, they want to support the country out of this situation, but they alone cannot do anything. The responsibility is Mozambique’s; international financial organizations are not the villain,” de Brito said.

Regarding the volume of foreign investment in Mozambique last year, the director of the foreign investor advice consultancy confirmed that in 2016 “there was a large retraction of foreign investment” which was “practically stagnant”, but stressed that the eagerness to invest is still there.

“The willingness to invest in the country has never disappeared. It is a matter of time and the caution of investors themselves, who are waiting for better times,” which she hopes will now arrive.

“It is still not easy to invest in Mozambique,” though, she said. The country is at the bottom of the Doing Business ranking, and there is “a lot of low-level corruption”.

De Brito explained that “it is necessary to know how the entities work. We have to improve the business environment, because there is a lot of low level corruption. For example, a foreigner on his own can take three months to get a registration done, but if you’re Mozambican, you get it in a week”.

The trick for foreign investors, she noted, is “to be very well supported by someone who really understands what they are doing and knows the procedures to be followed”, as well as finding a local partner with “good references”.

The foreign investor, who can find good business opportunities in agriculture, industry and tourism, “needs to be persistent. There is a lot of bureaucracy and it takes a lot of work. It’s not just a case of arriving and winning, like veni, vidi, vinci”, she concluded.

Source: Lusa