The Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, is travelling to Portugal this month in the company of more than 80 Mozambican businesspeople to take part in business events aimed at strengthening economic relations between the two countries.
The Mozambique-Portugal Business Forum will take place in the cities of Porto and Lisbon from 22 to 24 April, where the parties will discuss issues related to the Energy, Agro-Industry, Tourism, Transport and Finance sectors.
According to the vice-president of the Mozambican Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), Maria Abdula, the meeting will serve to explore the opportunities that the country offers to Portuguese companies, as well as to attract more foreign capital.
“On our side, exports have fallen. Ten years ago, our companies exported more than 100 million dollars to Portugal, five times more than they do today. The same is true of imports, which have halved. So, overall, our bilateral trade and investment has fallen,” she explained.
She added that the two nations continue to offer opportunities for companies from both economies, so we need to motivate them and emphasise that the “doors are open to everyone”.
The CTA vice-president said that the economic crisis caused by covid-19 had led to a cooling of relations, which had also been affected by the problem of kidnappings of businesspeople in Mozambican President.
“Entrepreneurs have been leaving the country because of this evil and, with this visit, we want to reassure and convince our counterparts that they should come to the country to invest, as there are many opportunities,” she emphasised.
Maria Abdula said that the organisation she represents will propose the creation of a Joint Working Commission between the two countries, coordinated by the Agency for the Promotion of Investments and Exports (APIEX), in order to materialise all the business intentions that will be revealed during the event.
She also pointed out that the forum, which had been scheduled for this week, was postponed in order to be attended by the head of state, who will be in Portugal for the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April.
“Since the 25th of April will be celebrated in Portugal and our head of state will be there, we chose to do this mission together with our government, because it’s always something we enjoy and we send out a different message. We’re going to count on the Executive’s presence at our events,” he concluded.
