“Mozambique is in preparation (…) we have not been prepared before for Mozal, Sasol and Vale” – Luísa Diogo

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“Mozambique is in preparation (…) we have not been prepared before for Mozal, Sasol and Vale” – Luísa Diogo

4:03 CAT | 15 Nov 2019

Photo: A Verdade

Assessing the state our country is in after the announcement of the largest private investment ever in Africa, former Mozambique prime minister Luisa Diogo said that “Mozambique is in preparation.”

The economist, who now chairs a private bank, compared the current situation to the period before the initiation of the Mozal, Sasol and Vale megaprojects, saying: “It is not possible to be prepared ahead of any investment project”.

“Mozambique is in preparation, because we could not be prepared in advance; just as we were not prepared ahead of [introducing] the market economy, so it is not possible to be prepared ahead of any investment project” Luísa Diogo said at the opening of the 6th Mozambique Gas Summit in Maputo.

“We were not prepared ahead for Mozal, but we made it before the deadline; we were not prepared ahead for Sasol, and we performed before the deadlines; we were not prepared ahead for Vale, but we made it on time,” the former finance minister and prime minister recalled.

Digressing on the fact that all who led or will lead the construction works are not necessary domestic companies, Luísa Diogo said that “gas investors should understand that, when Mozambicans enter into the construction of projects, they like to make it ahead of schedule.”

Diogo called the final investment decision of the consortium exploiting natural gas at Campo Golfinho/Tuna in the Rovuma Basin Area 1 a “magic moment” comparable to the beginning of Mozambique’s armed struggle [for independence], Independence Day and the date of the signing of the Peace Accords, and said she was not “concerned whether or not Mozambicans will be able to fully participate in this gas development, operations and logistics process, because they have always been able to do things that seemed impossible at the time.”

Diogo however warned that the imminent growth of gross domestic product “in an exponential and probably unprecedented, even frightening way” posed the challenge of sharing it between all Mozambicans.

“But we know that the gross domestic product is that product about which we can actually say that we are in a house and have one loaf of bread to share, then one person eats the loaf and says he ate it with all the other seven inside. What must be done is to find ways for this growth to have a different result.”

By Adérito Caldeira

Source: A Verdade