Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Tuesday guaranteed that the business environment in Mozambique, and in most member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), remains stable, despite terrorism and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, he admitted that these two factors have the potential to destabilise the business environment in Mozambique.
Nyusi, who holds the rotating presidency of SADC, was speaking during the 13th United States-Africa Business Summit, held in a virtual format under the theme “New Paths for a Stronger Economic Partnership between the United States and Africa”.
“We have made progress in the business environment with regard to removing red tape from the registration of companies and from foreign trade transactions, to implementing the central registry of credit in the financial sector, the revision of commercial and labour legislation, and the reduced waiting time for electricity connections”, he said.
To improve the business environment, Nyusi noted that the focus continues to be on the platform of dialogue between the public and private sectors, which results in viable solutions for the country.
He added that the government remains committed to reforms, with the help of its partners, including the United States and its Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
But the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led the Mozambican government to impose restrictive measures, has caused a global recession, Nyusi added, determining a decline in activities most exposed to the world market, such as tourism and the extractive industry.
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Covid-19, the President added, “has smothered the capacity to generate income. So we consider it important to grant a special and differential treatment to the foreign debt of all African countries, by considering an extension of the moratorium decided by the G20 and by the Paris Club”.
As for the terrorist attacks in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Nyusi stressed that they have caused a large number of the population to flee from their homes, and have caused the destruction of the social fabric, and of socio-economic infrastructures.
Right now, he added, the strategic priority is to fight against terrorism, prioritising measures such as “strengthening the combat capacity of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM), counting on support from the member countries of the SADC region and from Rwanda, as well as from other international partners including the United States and the European Union”.
Other strategic actions, Nyusi said, include programmes for integrated development and service provision in Cabo Delgado, coordinated by the Agency for the Integrated Development of the North (ADIN), and emergency humanitarian aid “to mitigate the suffering of displaced and besieged people, who have lost everything”.
