Over the last two years, Mozambique has approved 742 investment projects valued at 6.2 billion dollars, the Minister of Industry and Trade revealed on Monday, 4 September, admitting, however, the need for reforms to improve the business environment.
Speaking at the opening of the ministry’s 21st coordinating council, which runs from 4 to 6 September in Marracuene, on the outskirts of Maputo, Silvino Moreno said that “it is necessary to continue to carry out reforms in order to simplify procedures, reduce the time and cost of approval processes for economic activity licensing projects, create conditions for the implementation of industrial infrastructure projects and promote the addition of value to national raw materials”.
“This data should lead to an increase in industrial production in the country, looking at both the domestic market and the international market, and consequently contribute to improving the trade balance,” he emphasised.
He recalled that in the current legislature, the country now has a new Private Investment Law, “more attractive, modern and suited to global challenges”, and that a new Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Law is being prepared, as well as legislation for the organisation of commercial activity, an integrated agricultural marketing plan, a review of the licensing regulations for industrial and commercial activity and the drafting of a mechanism for improving the country’s business environment.
In the same vein, he assured that he will also move ahead with the transformation of the National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE) “into the Economic Activities Inspection Authority, in order to make it more effective”.
Silvino Moreno also said that “in the last two years, 92,452 companies have been licensed through the e-BAU [One-Stop Shop] platform, of which 2026 are new industries”, while recognising the continued decline in the weight of manufacturing in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), from “7.8% in 2020 to 7.4% in 2022. This percentage is still below the target we have set ourselves for 2024, which is 9 per cent,” he said.
According to Moreno, the mapping of industrial activities in Mozambique is also underway, “so that we can have information on the profile of the national industrial park, in quantitative and qualitative terms, as well as the characteristics of national production”.
