Mozambique: Government launches sub-national “Doing Business” study – AIM report

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Mozambique: Government launches sub-national “Doing Business” study – AIM report

11:34 CAT | 22 May 2018

This is an image of two business hands performing a handshake.

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The Mozambican government, in partnership with the World Bank, on Monday launched a sub-national version of the Bank’s annual publication “Doing Business”.

This will be a study to analyse and compare the business environment in Mozambique’s ten provincial capitals, and in four border posts. It is being financed by the British and Swiss governments, as well as by the World Bank itself.

According to the Minister of Industry and Trade, Ragendra de Sousa, through the study it is intended to identify and remove the obstacles that hinder the entrance of new investors into the Mozambican market, to increase employment, and to diversify the country’s economic base.

“What we want as a government is to increase the number of companies”, said Sousa. “When there are only a few of us, relations between us become very personal and difficult to change. But when the business density increases, our relations become more impersonal and professional”.

He hoped that out of the study would emerge proposals for simplification of procedures and other reforms to make the business environment more attractive for investors. It would look in particular at four areas of the regulatory environment – namely starting up a business, registering property, enforcing contracts, and cross-border trade.

The representative of the World Bank in Mozambique, Mark Lundell, said the study will look at the experience of small and medium enterprise in their interactions with the government and in the conduct of their business.

“We believe this report will benefit the country as a tool to be used for healthy competition between cities, to encourage learning between peers, and to make recommendations in areas where improvement is required”, he said.

Lundell believed that, based on this study, the government will have an instrument that will help it design strategies for simplifying procedures and promoting competitiveness at local and provincial level.

The methodology has mostly been borrowed from that used by the World Bank in drawing up its annual “Doing Business” reports. The latest such report, published in October last year, put Mozambique in 138th position out of 190 countries.

Source: AIM