Nyusi calls for dedication from newly appointed officials

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Nyusi calls for dedication from newly appointed officials

9:16 CAT | 27 Jun 2016

AIM / From left to right : Director of the President’s Office, Renizia Canhemba, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Ragendra de Sousa, President Filipe Nyusi, head of the National Statistics Institute (INE), Rosário Fernandes, member of the Higher Mass Media Council, Rogério Sitoe.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Friday called on new members of the government and of state institutions to apply their knowledge selflessly, in order to overcome the current challenges the country faces.

He was speaking after swearing into office the head of the National Statistics Institute (INE), Rosário Fernandes, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Ragendra de Sousa, and the Director of the President’s Office, Renízia Canhemba. Also sworn in was journalist Rogerio Sitoe, former director of the daily paper “Noticias”, as a member of the Higher Mass Media Council (CSCS), the press freedom watchdog body established under the Mozambican constitution.

Nyusi said that all four should help overcome the difficult moments through which the country is passing, by maintaining and strengthening the prestige of the institutions they will be leading.

“We hope you will apply all your energy and efforts to assist the institutions where you have been placed, and the country in general, to function in an extraordinary way, given the pressures of the time we are living through”, he added.

He told Rajendra de Sousa that he should use his knowledge to ensure that Mozambique participates actively in the SADC (Southern African Development Community) trade protocol, not merely as a centre of consumption, but as a producer of consumer goods.

He also expected from the new deputy minister “a great contribution to implementing our country’s industrialisation strategy”, as well as the overall SADC strategy for the industrialisation of southern Africa.

He recommended that Sousa should make the words “red tape” disappear from the vocabulary of the country’s business class, to be replaced by the word “transparency”. He also wanted him to create favourable conditions for improving the business environment, so as to stimulate the private sector

The Ministry of Industry and Trade, Nyusi added, should be at the heart of connecting productive poles with consumption centres, stimulating national and international markets.

Turning to Fernandes, Nyusi urged him to keep a cohesive team together at the INE so as to ensure that the next census, scheduled for 2017, gives a real and objective picture of the population.

The INE should continue to publicise the statistics it gathers, so that Mozambicans understand the real development of their country. “Society should know how to interpret statistics and make use of them to understand the socio-economic situation of the country”, said Nyusi.

Taking correct decisions depended on correct data, he added, and so the INE should be a leader in providing reliable and comprehensive information.

As for Rogério Sitoe, Nyusi urged him to help ensure that Mozambicans can continue to trust the information transmitted by the media, “as an honest and reliable messenger”.

Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Ragendra de Sousa said that one of the great challenges facing him is to guarantee linkages between the countryside and the cities, to ensure the sale and distribution of the goods produced in all the country’s regions.

A further challenge was to rebuild paralysed Mozambican industries, so that they could once again produce. He mentioned in particular the glassware factory Vidreira, and the tyre producer Mabor, which closed down decades ago, but which he believed could be revived.

Rosário Fernandes said he wanted to educate Mozambicans about statistics, so that everybody understands what is meant by terms such as inflation, and gross domestic product.

As for the forthcoming census, he stressed that to ensure success, all sectors must be involved, and must focus on statistics at district level, taking seriously the concept enshrined in the Constitution that the districts are “poles of development”.

Source: AIM