Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican Minister of Public Works. Joao Machatine, on Wednesday in Maputo forecast that the sector will have, for the next five years, three billion US dollars, assured from both cooperation partners as well as the State Budget, for the implementation of various development projects across the country.
Addressing the opening session of a meeting of his ministry’s Coordinating Council, Machatine pointed out that his sector only manages to implement about 300 million dollars every year, an amount which is much less than the funds he believes are now available – hence the need to adopt a new paradigm to fast-track several of the projects conceived for each year.
“It is pretty urgent that we adapt to the new demands and adopt new approaches to implement development projects, especially the way we plan them,” Machatine stressed. For instance, he said, road construction projects often take up to two years, but nowadays it is important to reduce the conclusion time.
Machatine highlighted the need to ensure timely implementation of the conceived projects, but also change the paradigm, as the current methods are inadequate and will be outdated in future. “We have to discuss the possibility of new technologies in the construction of our infrastructures, taking into account all these challenges”, he said
The sector, he stated, has been witnessing the unsustainability of development projects across the country, due to a number of factors, the first of which is project efficiency.
“It is important that those responsible for the projects do not exclude the efficiency component, so the applied investments are translated into the desired outcome,” he added.
Machatine acknowledged that the sustainability of infrastructures also depends on both financial and technical components. As for the first, he said the sector should not hesitate nor draw back from the user-pays principle – thus throwing the gauntlet down to the motoring lobby which has protested vociferously against the construction of toll gates on major roads.
On the technical component, he stressed the need to ensure the quality of the infrastructures.
Recently, the cooperation partners suspended funding for rural roads because the government failed to comply strictly with the environmental and social components. But Machatine claimed the issue has been overcome and the project will resume in the near future.
