Business wants ease of movement within CPLP

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Business wants ease of movement within CPLP

1:54 CAT | 11 May 2018

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The Business Confederation of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CE-CPLP) is drawing up a proposal on mechanisms to facilitate the movement of people and goods within the community, in order to facilitate trade.

The chairperson of the CE-CPLP, Mozambican businessman Salimo Abdula, made this announcement on Wednesday during the opening of the CPLP’s first Economic Conference, in Maputo.

“We need to guarantee the circulation of people and goods, because nobody circulates within a house where there are barriers”, said Abdula. “The barriers must be opened”.

He added “we hope that the states will play their role, and we, the business people, will play ours”.

He was convinced that free circulation will encourage trade, and so the CE-CPLP proposal will be sent in July, to be considered at the next CPLP summit of heads of state and government, due to be held in Cape Verde.

“We have concrete proposals and they will be discussed and presented at the end of this conference”, said Abdula. “Later we will deliver them to the Executive Secretariat, which will ensue that they reach the summit”.

For his part, the Mozambican Minister of Industry and Trade, Ragendra de Sousa, said the government regards the private business sector as one of its main partners. He was sure that the economic conference “will debate themes of interest that will guarantee the development of the community”.

The Executive Secretary of the CPLP, Maria do Carmo, said that the private sector “is an engine of development in our countries”.

She added that, if the member states of the CPLP, were to join together as a single country, “they would be the sixth largest economy in the world”.

Source: AIM