The opening day of the mission, dedicated to the infrastructure and construction sectors, closed with the signing of a Declaration of Intent for the Green Cities project under the Mattei Plan for Africa. Running on 8 and 9 June, the event was organised by the Embassy of Italy in Maputo, the Italian Trade Agency office in the capital, and the Italian-Mozambican Chamber of Commerce.
A high-level welcome
The delegation met the Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, Fernando Rafael, and the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Estêvão Pale, underlining the political weight Mozambique attached to the visit. The afternoon plenary opened with remarks from Maputo Mayor Rasaque Silvano Manhique and Transport and Logistics Minister João Jorge Matlombe, who summed up the host nation’s outlook simply: the two economies should “grow together.”
Italian Ambassador to Maputo Gabriele Annis and Mozambican Minister of Agriculture, Environment, and Fisheries Roberto Mito Albino present the declaration of intent for the Green Cities program, signed as part of the Mattei Plan for Africa.A diplomacy of growth
Ambassador Gabriele Annis read a message from Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who placed the Mozambique-Italy business mission within Italy’s wider growth-diplomacy strategy for the continent. Tajani recalled President Daniel Chapo’s visit to Rome last December and the second Italy-Africa Summit held in Addis Ababa in February 2026, adding that Italy’s internationalisation team — ICE, SACE, SIMEST and CDP — stood fully behind the country’s firms.
Three panels, one accord
Proceedings were built around three panels pairing Italian and Mozambican operators, preceded by a Eurocam report on the local business climate. The first examined logistics corridors with CFM, OICE and the World Bank; the second weighed energy infrastructure with the African Development Bank, national hydrocarbons firm ENH and ENI; the third addressed public works and urban regeneration with the public works ministry, the Municipality of Maputo, ANCE and Renco.
Green Cities and the road ahead
Closing the day, Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Minister Roberto Mito Albino co-signed the Green Cities Declaration of Intent with Ambassador Annis, opening the way for sustainable urban-regeneration work in the provincial capitals of Pemba and Chimoio. The mission concludes on 9 June with bilateral business meetings and Italian participation in a Business Forum hosted by the European Union under its Global Gateway programme.
