The Mozambican government said that the country is ‘safe for investment and tourism’, despite the wave of kidnappings of businesspeople and attacks by insurgents in Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique.
“Despite the problems we have, (…) Mozambique continues to be a safe country for investment in tourism and safe for travelling, naturally observing all the security issues. Every country has its problems,’ said the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, Fredson Bacar, during the launch of the 10th edition of the International Tourism Fair, which will take place from 8 to 11 August in Maputo.
Almost 150 businesspeople have been kidnapped in Mozambique in the last 12 years and a hundred have left the country out of fear, according to figures released on 25 July by the business confederation CTA, which argues that it is time for the government to say ‘enough is enough’.
“They’re on their way to 150. More than a hundred have left the country. We’re not talking about those who held administrative or management positions, if you count those there are many more. We’re talking about those who held the capital, who were shareholders in the companies,’ Pedro Baltazar, chairman of the CTA’s security and private protection department, said at a press conference in Maputo.
The Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism said he had no information to speak of kidnappings and insisted that this phenomenon and tourism ‘are isolated issues’.
He said that ‘kidnappings don’t only happen in Mozambique’, but assured that, despite the growing number of cases, the statistics of tourists entering the country tend to grow.
‘Looking at the figures, statistically we have been evolving, the figures indicate that there is a growth in tourists,’ he insisted, pointing to the approval of the Economic Acceleration Package implemented by the executive since 2022 and the declaration of control of the new coronavirus pandemic in the country as one of the catalysts for tourism and investment promotion in Mozambique.
Fredson Bacar also pointed to the visa exemption for citizens of 29 countries and the introduction of the Electronic Visa as other factors that have contributed to the growth in the number of tourists in Mozambique.
Mozambique introduced the Electronic Visa (e-Visa) in December 2022 and on 1 May the visa exemption for citizens from 29 countries, and also revised the measure for granting investment visas for longer periods to foreign citizens who hold investments in Mozambique, simplifying the requirements for granting them.
“We’re ending the year with a good figure. We’ve already left 2022 with more than 900,000 tourists to 1.3 million tourists in 2023 and for this year, 2024, we think we’ll reach the figure of 1.5 million,’ he said.
Still on the subject of security in the country, Fredson Bacar said that even in the province of Cabo Delgado, which has been facing an armed rebellion since October 2017, with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State, ‘tourism is possible’.
“You can visit Pemba, you can visit the Lúrio River, you can go to the island of Ibo, where there is heritage. We understand that there is work being done by our defence and security colleagues and there is work that we have to do, which is to continue to show that the country is safe to visit,’ he said.
Up until March, the Mozambican police had recorded a total of 185 cases of kidnapping and at least 288 people had been arrested on suspicion of being involved in this type of crime since 2011, the interior minister said earlier.
Lusa
