Watch: Chinde gets motorboat from China’s Africa Great Wall Mining Company- Mozambique

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Watch: Chinde gets motorboat from China’s Africa Great Wall Mining Company- Mozambique

3:38 CAT | 09 Oct 2017

TVM

The Chinde district government in the south of Zambézia province last Friday took possession of a motorboat with room for eleven passengers and 1.5 tons of merchandise from the Africa Great Wall Mining Company in Quelimane.

The Africa Great Wall Mining Company is a Chinese-owned company which has been engaged in the exploitation heavy sands in the coastal districts of Chinde and Inhassunge, both located in the southern region of Zambézia for roughly five years now.

Company director Stuart Wang said the boat cost just over US$ 25,000, and was part of the company’s corporate social responsibility programme, Chinde being one of the coastal districts that has insufficient fluvial transport, particularly for the transfer of sick people requiring medical care.

“We work in the community and we share these and other problems daily with the population. So we think that this gesture of solidarity could reduce our suffering,” Wang said.

When asked about his company’s future plans for improving the living conditions of the local population, Wand said that similar actions were ongoing in other areas.

He pointed to community-based initiatives such as the construction of housing for families displaced by Africa Great Wall Mining Company projects.

The first batch of houses would be delivered to families as soon as the agreement reached between the parties was approved in community consultations.

Chinde district administrator, Pedro Comma, described the motorboat as being of vital importance, since it would address mobility needs and ease the flow of merchandise to Marromeu in Sofala and Mopeia in Zambézia.

“With this boat, Chinde now has four for fluvial transport, which is still below the needs of the population,” Comma said.

Zambezia Permanent Provincial Secretary Elisa Somane reiterated the government’s commitment to monitoring compliance with the 20 percent community participation in the exploitation of natural resources stipulation.

Somane recalled that in the past the government had taken a hard line with the Great Wall Mining Company because it had been slow to meet the 20 percent community participation target.

“We are witnessing is a clear example of the government at various levels improving the living conditions of the population through involvement with cooperation partners,” she said.