The United States will resume support to Mozambique under the Millennium Challenge Corporation program, after 17 months of suspension.
The announcement was made Wednesday to the press by a delegation from the U.S. government organization after a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Veronica Macamo.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation Director for Mozambique, Kenneth Miller, explained that the private sectors of agriculture and rural transport are a priority.
At this stage, work is starting to identify the package of projects ready to be implemented by 2023, according to the MCC Coordinator in Mozambique, Higino de Marrule.
In the occasion, Miller assured that MCC’s commitment to Mozambique is strong, hence his team is working together with the Mozambican Executive to materialize an investment that will have a great impact on poverty reduction, through economic growth.
“The MCC, as an institution, has several priorities, and we will see how to leverage and encourage private investment. We know that private investment has a lot of impact on job creation, thereby contributing to poverty alleviation,” said James Miller.
Acknowledging that the specific plan has not yet been defined, the source added that it is important to ensure that the planned joint investments can reach the base of poverty in Mozambique.
For his part, the U.S. Ambassador in Maputo, Peter Vrooman, argued that the MCC is a very powerful and effective tool for strengthening bilateral relations with Mozambique.
The idea, according to the US diplomat, is to provide resources for the project that the Mozambican government determines, which is important in the process of economic development and will benefit the population.
The national coordinator for the implementation of the MCC project, Higino de Marule, said that his work team is doing everything in order to shorten the period defined for the conclusion of the elaboration of the priority projects for funding, which at this moment goes until 2023.
“The year 2023 is,in normal terms, the normal period defined in the calendar, but we are working on shortening the time. We don’t want to arrive until 2023, we want to deliver a package of projects that will constitute the compact II and that will be signed between the two parties”, he sustained.
Higino de Marule also stressed that although the package has not been defined, which normally has been between 250 and 400 million, Mozambique is working to guarantee funding of around US$500 million.
