Mozambique must keep attracting foreign investment – WTO

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Mozambique must keep attracting foreign investment – WTO

2:52 CAT | 15 Feb 2019

Photo: Notícias

The director general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Roberto Azevedo, said in Maputo on Thursday that Mozambique should continue trying to attracting investment for the development of the country, but without incurring “debts which are burdensome for the people”.

“There are several talks ongoing between the government and investors to facilitate investments so that Mozambique takes a qualitative step in production without necessarily incurring debts which may be burdensome for the people,” said Roberto Azevedo.

Speaking to the press after meeting President Nyusi in Maputo, Azevedo said Mozambique had made progress in economic and political stabilisation, but there were still challenges, one of which was the country’s lack of integration in major global trade flows.

“Mozambique is not the only case – many countries have limitations related to indebtedness,” the World Trade Organisation director-general said.

Besides attracting investment, Roberto Azevedo pointed to customs bureaucracy as a challenge, a point often raised by Mozambican and foreign businesspeople investing in the country.

“If the Trade Facilitation Agreement that we adopted with countries in the World Trade Organisation were effectively implemented, they would reduce transaction costs by a global average of 14 per cent. This is a lot – as if we had eliminated all customs tariffs that exist in the world,” Azevedo noted.

Minister of Industry and Commerce Ragendra de Sousa said that the World Trade Organisation recommendations were priorities for the Mozambican government, as was improving the country’s business environment.

According to the World Bank’s Doing Business Index, which compares economies against global best practice, Mozambique ranks 137th out of 190 countries, having improved from 2017 in both relative terms, up from 135th place, and in absolute terms, with an Index improvement of about 1.53 percent.

Source: Lusa