Mozambique Elections: Quelimane mayor criticises Renamo leadership - AIM
Photo: Notícias
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Tuesday described as “very positive” Mozambique’s participation in the Third Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing.
“There were bilateral gains as well as gains at the level of FOCAC”, Nyusi told Mozambican reporters at the end of the two day event.
He said Mozambique has received a Chinese grant of 140 million yuan (about 20.5 million US dollars). Of this sum, 100 million yuan are intended to support development projects, while the other 40 million take the form of a grant of rice.
Nyusi said that China has also cancelled debt payments due on Chinese government interest free loans that mature by the end of 2018. However he did not put a figure on this debt relief.
He also stressed the three bilateral cooperation agreements that the Mozambican and Chinese delegations had signed, witnessed by Nyusi and his Chinese host Xi Jinping. These are understandings on the strengthening of productive capacity, on plant health, and on the structuring of cooperation under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The document on plant health will allow Mozambican products of plant origin to enter the Chinese market.
Nyusi said he was impressed with the stance taken by the Mozambican business delegation that accompanied him to Beijing. “Our business people managed to sign six memorandums of understanding”, he said.
During the Business Forum held on Sunday, involving Mozambican and Chinese businesses, the largest Mozambican commercial bank, the Millennium-BIM (International Bank of Mozambique), reached an understanding with Fosun International, a Chinese investment and asset management company, and the publicly owned mobile phone company M-Cel signed a memorandum with one of the leading Chinese telecommunications companies, Huawei.
The Mozambican government’s Investment and Export Promotion Agency (APIEX) signed an understanding to promote industrial parks in Mozambique, and the National Roads Administration (ANE) signed three memorandums.
At the opening of FOCAC on Monday, Xi had announced a new financing package for African countries of 60 billion US dollars – 20 billion dollars will be for lines of credit, 15 billion for soft loans, 10 billion for a special China-Africa fund for development financing, 10 billion for Chinese companies to invest in Africa, and five billion to finance African imports.
To benefit from this package, Nyusi said, Mozambique and other African countries will have to present projects. In the near future, the Mozambican Minister of Economy and Finance, Adriano Maleiane, will visit Beijing to discuss the matter.
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