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Work on building a cement factory in the northernmost province of Niassa will begin this year, President Filipe Nyusi announced on Thursday.
Speaking in the provincial capital, Lichinga, at a rally marking “Victory Day”, the anniversary of the agreement signed on 7 September 1974 between the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) and the Portuguese government which paved the way for the country’s independence, Nyusi said the new factory would be able to extract much of its raw material (such as limestone and clay) from within Niassa. Once it is operational, the factory will employ at least 500 local workers.
“We will not feel content until the dream to industrialise and develop Niassa is made a reality”, Nyusi told the crowd. “We must overcome the backwardness to which Niassa was submitted, partly because of its active participation in the national liberation struggle”.
Nyusi pointed out the effort under way to break Niassa’s isolation. Recently reconstruction of the railway branch line, linking Lichinga to the northern corridor from Malawi to the port of Nacala, was completed, thus restoring a reliable overland connection with the rest of the world.
Key road links are also being built – from Lichinga to Cuamba (on the northern corridor) and from Niassa to Montpuez, in Cabo Delgado province.
“Our dream has been constantly interrupted”, Nyusi said, “because we still feel incapable of bringing the best to Niassa. But we want to send out more signals pointing to the industrialization of the province”.
The President described the people of Niassa as an example of courage which transformed the Niassa front “into a bulwark of our struggle for independence, because of their unconditional support for the guerrillas of Frelimo”.
“The people of Niassa committed themselves to the cause”, Nyusi continued, “and transformed the apparent physical and geographical disadvantages of the province into a real level for the expansion of the independence struggle. By celebrating Victory Day in Lichinga, we want to make clear our appreciation and praise for the population of this part of the country for the role they played which made possible the victory we are now jubilantly celebrating”.
The agreement signed with Portugal in Lusaka in 1974 was not an act of charity on the part of the colonial government stressed Nyusi – instead it was a victory that cost the blood of many men and women who had fought on a variety of fronts to liberate Mozambique.
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