Norway wants to diversify investments in Mozambique

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Norway wants to diversify investments in Mozambique

8:46 CAT | 31 Oct 2016

Twitter / President Nyusi received today the Norwegian Foreign Minister in the presidential office

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende said in Maputo on Monday that his country is willing to invest in “new areas” regarded as important for Mozambique’s socio-economic growth and development.

He was speaking to reporters after an audience granted by President Filipe Nyusi. Brende said they had reviewed the cooperation between the two countries which dates back to the time of Mozambique’s independence in 1975, and reaffirmed their desire to strengthen these longstanding ties of friendship.

Brende cited Norwegian investment (over 400 million US dollars) in Mozambican hydropower and other sources of electricity.

Norway has also invested in rural electrification, he said, and now it would like to turn its attention to education, health care and job creation.

Brende is accompanied by about 30 Norwegian business people, interested in exploiting new business opportunities in Mozambique.

“It is important that I am here at a time when the country is facing economic challenges”, he said. “For us it’s the right moment to send a message of support to the investigations under way into the hidden debts and the guarantees issued by the government, but also at a time when the government is seeking a way out for peace and reconciliation”.

Brende said his meeting with Nyusi reached no conclusions, but it was agreed that a mechanism should be identified leading to a partnership with the government that could help the country on the questions both of the hidden debts and the issue of national reconciliation

The “hidden debts” refers to the illegal guarantees given by the previous government, under President Armando Guebuza, in 2013 and 2014 for loans of over two billion dollars from European banks (mostly Credit Suisse and the Russian bank VTB) to three quasi-public companies – the Mozambique Tuna Company (Ematum), and the security related companies Proindicus and Mozambique Asset Management (MAM). It is these three government-guaranteed loans that have driven Mozambique’s foreign debt beyond the threshold of unsustainability.

The Attorney-General’s Office is heading investigations into the hidden debts, and there will an independent, international audit of Ematum, Proindicus and MAM.

Source: AIM