The Mozambican private sector has proposed to the government the creation of a Competitiveness Fund for strategic goods, with the mission of subsidising primary production and services for some products, such as vegetables, cereals and chickens.
Speaking during a consultation seminar on Mozambique’s tariff offer within the framework of joining the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the president of the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), Agostinho Vuma, explained that the country has favourable conditions to be even more competitive and that this mechanism will help to quickly achieve self-sufficiency by 2030.
He said that the creation of the Competitiveness Fund will also boost the effective implementation of some agreements to which the country is a signatory, in the expectation that they will have positive effects on the economy and, consequently, increase the profitability of the national private sector.
“We support the adoption of integration strategies that benefit and stimulate cross-border trade by facilitating procedures to reduce costs and time to do business,” he emphasised.
According to Vuma, the AfCFTA opens up opportunities for the agriculture, energy and export sectors, as the market is widening. “We need to think about the best strategy to increase African trade from the current less than 20 per cent to more than 50 per cent by 2045, as well as Africa’s share of global trade from 2 per cent to 12 per cent.”
However, the private sector representative warned that these figures could grow slowly if Africa’s trade continues to be based on primary products, warning of the need to add value to manufactured goods.
“CTA also calls for effective use of the opportunities, which necessarily involves improving payment systems, the infrastructure network and transport and logistics to ensure that the rules are fully implemented at the borders,” he concluded.
