The chairperson of the European Association of Entrepreneurs in Mozambique (EUROCAM), Simone Santi, has called for visa exemptions for some European countries with high levels of business interest in the country.
The appeal was expressed this Friday, in Maputo, at the business debate aimed at assessing the course of the Implementation of the Economic Acceleration Package of Measures, an initiative announced last July by President Filipe Nyusi.
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“In the list of countries that will have visa exemption, we ask that several European countries with business interests be included. We hope to include mainly the countries that have diplomatic representation in Mozambique”, Santi said, adding that “there are several countries with strong interests in investing in the country, and we are ready to invite more countries.”
According to Nyusi, the government will announce in the near future a list of countries that will benefit from visa waivers. “The list should contemplate the European countries. The European businessmen in Mozambique have investment interests of around 60 million Euros (about 63 million dollars, at the current exchange rate)”, Santi said.
At a time when Mozambique is starting to export liquefied natural gas from the Rovuma basin, in a project that will produce 3.4 million tonnes per year, led by the Italian oil company Eni, Santi says that “we are confident that this is a healthy country to do business in. Mozambique is in the international competitiveness game.”
“Many Europeans come to Mozambique for tourism, labour or business purposes. I believe that all these people bring benefits to the country, and we hope that everything will be done to include these countries on the list of exemptions”, the EUROCAM representative said.
For his part, João Macaringue, representing the Office for the Coordination of Reforms, explained “work is still being done on the visa waiver. There are multi-disciplinary technical teams working out the criteria for selecting the countries that will benefit from it.”
After the selection and accurate observation by the Government, according to Macaringue, the list will be published, so that there will be economic acceleration.
“It is still being worked on. There is no number of countries yet. Some criteria are still being defined and, after that, the countries that will be exempt will be determined”, the representative said, stressing that the Government will decide the number of countries that will be on the list.
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Macaringue, who made a presentation focused on the 20 Measures for Economic Acceleration, explained that they will bring results over time, although they are subdivided.
“The 20 measures are segregated. Some are quick-win, but there are those that, given their nature and level of work, will take much longer to produce an effect”, he explained.
“The mapping of each of the measures has already been done”, Macarinque said, noting, however, that the mapping of other factors that contribute to the achievement of the final initiative is currently under way.
