Official visit of the president of the Swiss Parliament to Mozambique

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Official visit of the president of the Swiss Parliament to Mozambique

10:10 CAT | 10 Apr 2019

File photo: ps-ticino.ch

The president of the National Council of Switzerland, Marina Carobbio Guscetti (SP, Ticino), is paying an official visit to Mozambique from 10 to 12 April. Marina Carobbio is accompanied on her official visit by a Swiss parliamentary delegation.

From 10 to 12 April, the delegation will visit Mozambique, which was recently hit by Cyclone Idai. The official visit will be an expression of Switzerland’s support for the people of Mozambique at this difficult time. Ms Carobbbio will be received by the president of the Republic of Mozambique, Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, the President of the Mozambican Parliament, Verónica Nataniel Macamo Ndlovo and some members of the parliament of Mozambique. A meetings with the health minister Nazira Valy Abdula is also planned. The programme also includes visits to development cooperation projects.

The visiting delegation will have the opportunity to meet the Swiss community in Mozambique, as well as business people and NGOs active in the country.

The President of the National Council and her delegation will then travel to the province of Nampula in the north of the country, where they will meet Governor Victor Borges. The programme also includes visits to cooperation and development projects funded by the Swiss Agency for International Cooperation (DDC).

Relations between Switzerland and Mozambique are based on close cooperation dating back 40 years, in particular through the promotion of health, economic development and good governance.

Switzerland currently chairs the Contact Group accompanying the peace dialogue with a view to signing a final and lasting peace agreement.

Finally, Switzerland supported the people affected by Cyclone Idai with more than 20 tons of material, including tents, tools and equipment for restoring access to drinking water. Switzerland has also sent several experts from the Swiss Corporation for Humanitarian Aid (CSA) to the affected areas, and disbursed two million Swiss francs (CHF 2,000,000.00) to meet the challenges posed by this disaster in Mozambique and the region.

Mozambique is a priority country in Swiss development cooperation. The development cooperation programme focuses on three areas: economic development, health and local governance. Switzerland supports local projects, in particular in the northern provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula. On a national level, Switzerland supports the government in carrying out institutional reforms in various sectors. Switzerland has helped Mozambique to recover from the effects of the civil war which shook the country from 1976 to 1992.

The delegation accompanying Ms Carobbio Guscetti to Mozambique comprises the vice president of the National Council, Isabelle Moret (FDP, Vaud), National Council members Thomas Aeschi (SVP, Zug), Isabelle Chevalley (GLP, Vaud), Leo Müller (CVP, Lucerne), Rosmarie Quadranti (BDP, Zurich) and Manuel Tornare (SP, Geneva), and Ambassador Claudio Fischer, the head of International Relations and Multilingualism.

Official visit to Rwanda

Marina Carobbio Guscetti paid an official visit to Rwanda from 7 to 9 April, where she will take part in commemorations marking the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Genocide.

On Sunday, 7 April, the president of the Swiss National Council and her delegation were in Gisozi for a commemoration to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide, in which over 800,000 people lost their lives. The commemoration was followed by the ‘Marche du Souvenir’ and the ‘Soirée de la Mémoire’ in Kigali. Switzerland’s State Secretary of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Pascale Baeriswyl, will also participate in this commemoration day.

Alongside the commemoration ceremonies, talks took place with the speaker of the Rwandan Chamber of Deputies, Donatille Mukabalisa, certain members of parliamentary committees, Minister of Health Diane Gashumba and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Richard Sezibera. Ms Carobbio Guscetti and her delegation also visited a number of international development projects in which Switzerland is involved.

Switzerland intends to respond as effectively as possible to the region’s challenges by making coordinated use of its three foreign policy instruments – development cooperation, promotion of peace and human rights, and humanitarian aid. The main focuses of Switzerland’s work in the Great Lakes region (which also includes Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo) are supporting the development of public health and basic water and hygiene services, promoting vocational training and diversifying employment opportunities. There will be even greater concentration on these areas in future. Bilateral relations between Switzerland and Rwanda have long centred around development cooperation, but now both countries are keen to intensify and expand the relationship.

???? • #Rwanda: la délégation en visite au Centre de Santé Kigese avec la Ministre de la santé @DianeGashumba. La présidente et la viceprésidente @MarinaCarobbio et @IsabelleMoret ont également été reçues par le Ministre des affaires étrangères @rsezibera pic.twitter.com/QGzwhIUw7G

— Parl CH (@ParlCH) April 9, 2019