Measures for economic recovery are slow and insufficient – business sector | Mozambique

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Measures for economic recovery are slow and insufficient – business sector | Mozambique

2:30 CAT | 31 Mar 2022

Photo: Agostinho Vuma on Facebook

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), the country’s largest employers’ association, yesterday said that it considers the measures taken by the state to mitigate the “crises” affecting the country’s economy to be slow and insufficient.

“There is a perception within the business sector that these programs, plans and strategies have not been implemented with due speed and effectiveness,” CTA president Agostinho Vuma declared at the opening of the 17th Annual Private Sector Conference (CASP), Mozambique’s largest gathering of businesspeople.

The measures taken by the executive to mitigate the effect on business companies of the various crises and ensure their recovery, growth and robustness were insufficient, he added.

For the recovery of companies, the president of CTA advocated the rapid payment of state debts to small and medium-sized companies and more speed in the disbursement of Value Added Tax (VAT) rebates.

“One of the ways to support the strengthening of small and medium-sized companies is to strengthen their cash-flow,” he pointed out.

The CTA leader stressed that the private sector currently was owed large sums by the state for goods and services supplied, and that delays in repayment were responsible for the decapitalisation of companies.

Overcoming logistical constraints was another essential step towards revitalising the national productive sector, Vuma added.

The CTA president also advocated the deepening of the dialogue around decisions affecting companies, with a view to safeguarding the interests of the productive sector and the economy.

Vuma noted that the Mozambican productive fabric had been hit by the combined effects of natural disasters, Covid-19 and terrorism in Cabo Delgado province, in the north of the country.

“Our economy, which had been growing at an average annual rate of around 8% since 1995, saw its growth abruptly fall, starting in 2016, to an average rate of 2.4% per year, even reaching a 1.23% contraction in 2020,” he noted.

Over three days, the CASP conference brings together more than a thousand people in Maputo, under the motto “Accelerating the actions for the economic recovery of the private sector in Mozambique”.

A business portfolio in the agriculture, energy, tourism, water infrastructure and transport sectors valued at US$990 million (€893.5 million) will be presented at the conference, which resumes after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Source: Lusa