Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Assembly of the Republic (AR), the Mozambican parliament, on Wednesday approved the National Development Strategy (ENDE) 2025-2044, a planning and budgeting instrument aimed at guiding the country’s development over the next 20 years.
The strategy is based on five pillars, namely, the structural transformation of the economy; social and demographic transformation; infrastructure, organization and territorial planning; governance, peace and security; and environmental sustainability and climate change.
The resolution approving ENDE was passed with 214 of the 221 deputies in the chamber voting in favour and only seven casting their votes against. Most of the opposition deputies voted alongside the ruling Frelimo Party in favour of the strategy. Only the seven deputies of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) voted against.
According to Frelimo representative, Edson Nhangumele, ENDE was drawn up in close alignment with the fundamental objectives of the state, enshrined in the Constitution, obeying the specific rules of the State Financial Administration System.
He also said that the strategy guides the country’s new priorities and challenges, in response to changes in the legal and structural context of the economy, planning and international commitments.
“We voted in favour of this ENDE proposal because it expresses the supreme interests of Mozambicans, both in the country and in the diaspora, and as a result it received the consensus of three parliamentary groups”, he said.
For his turn, Elísio Muaquina, spokesperson of the parliamentary group of Podemos, the largest opposition party, said that approving ENDE “is not the same as giving the government a blank cheque because the vote is accompanied by a patriotic demand, technical vigilance and a clear political agenda that ensures it doesn’t get lost in the abyss of good intentions.”
He added that the country “can no longer continue to approve decorative strategies. ENDE must be the driving force behind a real, measurable, and territorially equitable structural transformation.”
Arnaldo Chalaua, from Renamo, the second largest opposition party, said that the country must create an axis of communication so that the country has some stability.
Renamo “has an increased responsibility”, he said. “Not approving this strategy would mean abandoning our responsibility”.
MDM deputy José Lobo broke with the consensus. He said that his parliamentary group voted against the strategy because it does not present a clear vision of the changes that the government intends to make in relation to foreign investment, and does not deal with the fiscal benefits enjoyed by multinational corporations operating in the country.
“We are ready to collaborate in the discussion and approval of instruments that project Mozambique’s future with hope. That’s why our vote is definitively against the resolution”, Lobo declared.
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