Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican President stated yesterday that the more than 20 agreements to be signed on Tuesday, at the summit with Portugal, demonstrate the “excellent” level of bilateral relations, but he wants them to be felt by the people.
“Several legal instruments are being prepared, around 21 instruments. This is a clear and unequivocal demonstration of the excellent relations that exist between Portugal and Mozambique,” said Daniel Chapo, in Porto, where from Tuesday the sixth summit between the two countries is taking place, affirming the objective of “strengthening more and more the excellent relations”.
Daniel Chapo took office as Mozambique’s fifth President last January, and this is his second visit to Portugal in less than six months. At the Porto summit, besides the Portuguese prime minister, Luís Montenegro, around twenty ministers from the two governments are also taking part.
The legal instruments to be signed, including cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding, involve the two States directly, but also public companies from both countries, including in new areas such as communications, digital transformation and infrastructure.
For Chapo, it is necessary to “consolidate increasingly” the economic relations with Portugal, despite Mozambique having been only the 77th largest supplier of goods to the Portuguese market in 2024.
The solution, he said, is to increase the productivity of the Mozambican economy, starting with agriculture and tourism: “That is our struggle.”
In this way it will be possible to increase exports to Portugal, also requiring infrastructure within Mozambique, beyond hydrocarbons, a sector that is resuming after the suspension of gas megaprojects in Cabo Delgado, in the north, due to terrorism.
“With the projects that are being resumed in the Rovuma basin, Mozambique’s hydrocarbon production capacity will increase and, consequently, Mozambique will increase its exports, not only of hydrocarbons (…). This will undoubtedly increase the level of supply of more products to Portugal and I am absolutely certain that in the coming years Mozambique will improve its ranking as one of Portugal’s supplying partners,” he said.
Of the understandings to be achieved with Portugal at this summit, Chapo wants results in the form of “concrete things” for both peoples: “We think it is important for Portugal and Mozambique to work in the infrastructure sector. I am talking about matters related to construction, mainly of roads and other extremely important infrastructure. It is not possible to develop the economy without the infrastructure being properly developed.”
He argued that Portugal can support, with private financing, the activity it develops in Mozambique in agriculture, tourism, catering, trade, industrialisation and infrastructure, “allowing the Mozambican economy to increase its capacity to supply more products to Portugal”.
“There will be gains for both sides. In Mozambique, this financing, once invested, will give jobs to young people, will generate income for families, and will increase the capacity of those companies to pay taxes in Mozambique,” he said, stressing that Portugal benefits from “the supply of more products” and the financing “will have returns in the Portuguese financial market”.
“That is why I think these legal instruments will bring benefits both to the Mozambican people and to the Portuguese people, which is the objective of our governance, both of the Portuguese government and of the Mozambican government,” he concluded.
Portuguese exports of goods to Mozambique, led by medicines, increased by 0.8% in 2024, to 216.1 million euros, while imports are worth around 10% of that value, with the Mozambican market serving as only Portugal’s 77th supplier.
According to data provided to Lusa by Portugal’s Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade (AICEP), on commercial relations between the two countries, which, besides the sixth bilateral summit, are also holding on the same day in Porto a business forum, Mozambican exports of goods even fell by 25.8% from 2023 to 2024, to 26.2 million euros.
In 2024 Portugal had 1,158 companies exporting to Mozambique – compared with 1,508 in 2020 – more than half (54%) representing a turnover between one and ten million euros.
In addition, around 500 companies in Mozambique have Portuguese capital. Official data also indicate that a quarter of the 100 largest Mozambican-registered companies are Portuguese-owned, including the country’s two largest banks, BCI, led by the Caixa Geral de Depósitos group, and Millennium BIM, of BCP, together with around 4.5 million customers.
