Nysui calls for coordinated actions to face Mozambican crisis

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Nysui calls for coordinated actions to face Mozambican crisis

10:57 CAT | 24 Aug 2016

File photo / Presidente Filipe Nyusi

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Monday argued that it is not one or other isolated measure that can solve the country’s current economic crisis, but a whole series of coordinated actions.

He was speaking in Beira, at the start of a visit to the central province of Sofala, where he inaugurated a cement factory, and a plant to process pigeon peas, a crop which can be exported to India, where it is an important source of protein.

Nyusi noted that when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Mozambique in July, “we held a symbolic exchange of pigeon pea seed. Now we are delivering the final product”. He urged peasant farmers to step up their production of this pulse, since the Indian investors guarantee a market for all that is produced.

He also visited the fisheries produce processing plant in Beira port, and inaugurated a truck screening terminal.

To overcome economic crisis, Nyusi declared, “a series of activities have to be undertaken, and these factories we are inaugurating are among them”.

In his visits to the provinces, he added, he had carried a message urging the population to increase production, “but this implies a whole chain of activities”. The call for increased production was being accepted, Nyusi added, but problems had arisen such as access to markets, storage and processing.

The units inaugurated on Monday formed part of the value chain, he said, and thus contributed to solving the country’s problems. The call for increased production was incomplete without factories to add value to raw materials, and adequate storage and market facilities.

On his arrival, Nyusi was greeted by Sofala provincial governor, Helena Taipo, and by the Mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango. Simango heads the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), but has friendly relations with Nyusi dating back to the days when they studied together in the 1980s. Simango also accepted Nyusi’s invitation to become a member of the presidential advisory body, the Council of State.

At an extraordinary meeting of the Sofala provincial government, Taipo said that among her top priorities were the sustainable exploration of natural resources, such as the limestone deposits in Muanza district, and the resumption of coal traffic along the Sena railway line from Tete province to Beira port.

The Brazilian mining company Vale has twice suspended traffic along the line because of attacks by gunmen of the Renamo rebels against coal trains.

Taipo also stressed her concern at mitigating the effect of climate change and of erosion, particularly in Beira.

Source: AIM