Africa-Press – Mozambique. The president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, and more than 80 businesspeople from Mozambique are taking part in a business mission to Porto and Lisbon this month in an attempt to reverse the decline in economic relations between the two countries in recent years.
“Overall, our bilateral trade and investment has decreased. However, the countries continue to offer rich opportunities for companies from both economies,” said the vice-president of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), Maria Assunção Abdula.
The Mozambique – Portugal Business Mission, presented at a press conference in Maputo on Wednesday, will take place in Porto and Lisbon from 22 to 24 April, bringing “more than 80 companies from the agro-industry, energy, tourism, transport and finance sectors” to the two Portuguese cities.
“It aims to explore the opportunities offered to Portuguese companies to internationalise, as a way of increasing and diversifying Portuguese investment in Mozambique. On our side, exports have fallen. Ten years ago, our companies exported just over $100 million [€92 million] to Portugal, five times more than they do today. The same is true of imports, which have fallen by half,” she said.
The aim, explained Maria Assunção Abdula, is to reverse this scenario: “To see, attract and explain to businesspeople that we are at a different stage. We want to motivate them and tell them that Porto is still here, with open doors.”
According to the vice-president of the CTA, the economic crisis caused by Covid-19 has led to a cooling of these relations, which have also been affected by the problem of kidnappings of businesspeople in Mozambique.
“It’s another consequence too, businesspeople have been leaving the country,” she noted, emphasising the desire to reverse this estrangement with direct contact in Portugal.
“We want to explain this ‘in loco’, in person. And with this we can convince our counterparts in Portugal that they should come to Mozambique to invest, because the opportunities are here,” he added.
The forum was scheduled for this week but was postponed in order to be attended by Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, who will be visiting Portugal at the time for the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April, he added.
“Since 25 April is going to be in Portugal and our head of state, our government, will be there, we would like to do this mission with our government because it’s always something that we like, that we pass on a different message, a strong message. So the CTA, a partner of the government, couldn’t, and we had to change to a better mission (…) Yes, we will have the presence of our head of state,” said Maria Assunção Abdula, questioned by Lusa.
The mission’s “highlight” will be the Portugal – Mozambique Business Forum, on 24 April, under the theme ‘Internationalisation of Portuguese Companies in the PALOP: The case of Mozambique’, which will be “led by the Government of Mozambique, where business cooperation agreements will be signed”, she added.
During the mission, the CTA intends, in partnership with Portuguese business counterparts, to “generate new opportunities for establishing partnerships, representing brands in sectors such as oil and gas, agro-industry, transport, logistics, finance and services, renewable energies, hospitality and tourism”.
“We will also be proposing a joint working committee between the government and the private sector of both countries, coordinated by the Investment and Export Promotion Agency APIEX, to realise all the business intentions that will be revealed during the mission. With this roadmap, we believe that we will be able to give another impetus to business relations between Mozambique and Portugal, resulting in an increase in bilateral trade and investment,” he concluded.
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