China continues to be the biggest financier and builder of much of the infrastructure that Mozambique has benefited from in recent years, with the Maputo-KaTembe bridge and its connecting roads, including the Maputo ring road, emerging as the greatest exponent of co-operation, the Mozambican Information Agency reported on Sunday.
The fruits of Chinese cooperation in the infrastructure sector over the last ten years include the National Road Number Six (EN6), which links the city of Beira to Machipanda, in the centre of the country, the rehabilitation of sections of Mozambique’s railways and important interventions in the mining sector.
The statement was made recently in a document to which AIM had access, signed by the Mozambican delegate to the Permanent Secretariat of Forum Macau, Francisca Reino, in which she claims that China is crucial for Mozambique.
“Much of the infrastructure that Mozambique benefits from today was built by Chinese companies. China is crucial for Mozambique,” she said.
In the document, Reino recalls the fundamental contribution made by the Chinese government and various Chinese companies to the development of infrastructure in her home country, while informing her Chinese partners of the constraints of the EN1, the road that links Maputo-Rovuma and which is currently in terrible condition.
“The back road linking the north to the south has not yet been consolidated. It’s a challenge. I would say that the road is the pillar of the country’s development, but its condition is a challenge,” added the Mozambican representative
The source points to the construction of infrastructure as the first and most fundamental piece of the economic puzzle that the Mozambican authorities intend to solve in order to boost the country’s productivity, reduce external dependence and alleviate poverty.
In the document shared with Forum Macau, the source emphasises the package of economic acceleration measures adopted by the Mozambican government with the aim of improving the business environment and strengthening strategies to attract capital and foreign direct investment.
As well as infrastructure, which the Mozambican government sees as the key to development and which plays a fundamental role in the country’s economic growth, the document points to agriculture, industry and tourism as areas in which co-operation with China and Chinese entities has proved fundamental.
