The road link between Mozambique and Tanzania will promote economic integration and strengthen relations of brotherhood between the two countries, opening prospects for continental interconnection.
This is the position defended yesterday, 05/08 by the Mozambican President , Filipe Nyusi, when inaugurating, in the town of Ninga, Mueda district, in Cabo Delgado, the Roma-Negomano road, recently paved, with about 70 kilometres and connecting Mozambique and Tanzania. The infrastructure is part of a total of 175 kilometres of the Mueda-Negomano road in Cabo Delgado province.
For Nyusi, this road further facilitates cross-border trade of goods from the Mozambican ports of Nacala and Pemba and through the Mutuara corridor in Tanzania. The infrastructure is also considered a tangible asset for the materialisation of the purposes of the continental free trade area, within the framework of the creation of a common market.
Thus, he stressed, the road will deepen economic transformations and develop the region’s agricultural value chain and promote industrialisation across the continent, in addition to being an asset for the materialisation of the project to link Cairo in Egypt and Cape Town in South Africa.
“The new road will reduce vehicle maintenance costs and make the products of this part of the country more competitive in the national and international markets,” said the President.
The asphalting of the Mueda-Negomano road also fits into the government’s vision of a land link from Ponta de Ouro, in Maputo province, to Negomano, in Cabo Delegado, totalling 3078 kilometres.
For the African Development Bank (AfDB), the financier of the project, the road represents a milestone and an opportunity for greater cooperation and economic integration also for SADC.
The AfDB’s resident representative in Mozambique, César Mba Abogo, said the road will not only contribute to the development of Cabo Delgado province, but will also boost trade between Mozambique and Tanzania through the Mtwara corridor and significantly reduce transport costs.
“The inauguration of this road represents an important milestone and an opportunity for greater cooperation and economic integration between Mozambique and Tanzania, and the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC),” he said.
Regarding the second phase of the construction of the Mueda-Negomano road, whose works will start later this year, as promised by the President of the Republic, the AfDB resident representative in Mozambique confirmed that the institution has approved additional financing of close to US$100 million, of which US$30 million will be for the 35-kilometre link between Roma and Nanbumgale, and about US$70 million for the improvement of 65.4 kilometres between Nanbumgale and Mueda.
Meanwhile, Nyusi reaffirmed the government’s commitment to requalify the EN1, with activities starting in May on the Inchope-Gorongosa, Caia-Chimura-Nicoadala and Metoro-Pemba sections, totalling 580 kilometres.
Meanwhile, yesterday, 4 August, Filipe Nyusi laid the foundation stone for the second phase of the asphalting of the Mueda-Negomano road, on the Mueda-Nambugale-Roma section.
O.Económico
