Mozambique: PM pledges further reforms to improve business environment

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Mozambique: PM pledges further reforms to improve business environment

7:13 CAT | 23 Aug 2021

Photo: Noticias

Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario on Friday said the government will continue its efforts to fast-track the approval and implementation of reforms enshrined in the Action Plan to Improve the Business Environment (PAMAN) 2019/21, which include revising the Labour and Investment Laws as well as the Commercial Code.

“We all have to do our best to ensure effective implementation of the Action Plan to Improve the Business Environment”, urged Rosario, addressing in Maputo the closing ceremony of a session of the Business Environment Monitoring Council. This is a body that monitors economic reforms aimed at improving the business environment.

The Monitoring Council, headed by the Prime Minister, is coordinated by the Industry and Trade Minister and looks after all relevant issues for the success of the public-private dialogue, working with the country’s main business forum, the CTA (Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations).

Rosario urged the two sides not to lose sight of the fact that this is the last year for the implementation of the plan which contains integrated actions that both the government and the private sector have committed to fulfill in order to ensure continuous improvement of the business environment across the country.

“Taking into account the reflections and debates at the meeting, we must, from now on, identify the actions and concrete reforms that will answer the current private sector challenges, which will improve the next instrument for the betterment of the business environment, agreed on in the Public-Private Dialogue,” he added.

Despite the challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, Rosario stressed that there has been progress in the implementation of the action plan, throughout the 2019/21 period. He pointed to the example of a package of measures such as the elimination of pre-shipment inspection and the introduction of “simplified customs clearance” for exports which have been speeding up trade and cutting costs.

Rosario said that electronic taxation has been enabling taxpayers to submit their tax declaration electronically, as well as paying taxes at the bank. The reforms, he added, will reduce transaction costs, improve competitiveness and attract further investment.

CTA chairperson Agostinho Vuma feared that the economic prospects for the third quarter of the year will be marked by a slowdown, following the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic which compelled the government to tighten restrictive measures to contain the disease.

But Vuma was optimistic that the recent recapture from terrorist hands of the coastal towns of Palma and Mocimboa da Praia, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado and the encouraging progress of the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out will exert a positive influence on the prospects for economic performance over the coming months.

Source: AIM