The Chairman of the Board of the Portugal Mozambican Chamber of Commerce (CCPM), João Figueiredo, said last Friday, 21 June, that in recent years, Portuguese investment in the country has slowed down due to the national and international situation.
He was speaking during a meeting between Portuguese and Mozambican businesspeople at the Moza Banco headquarters, which was aimed at discussing Portuguese investment in Mozambique.
On the occasion, the source explained: “We continue to have companies here (Mozambique) in various sectors of activity, such as energy, construction and finance. We have companies that are significantly representative of the country’s economic activity. However, it is true that in recent years there has been a slowdown in new investments and new players in the domestic market. The international and national climate is not the best. We all know that we are going through complex times, because first there was Covid-19, but before that we had Cyclones Idai and Kenneth. In addition, since 2017 we’ve had some problems in the north of the country with insurgents.”
Continuing, João Figueiredo added: “We have the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The world is experiencing a very different situation from the one we knew 15 or 20 years ago. We’re living through a time of contraction, in which the central banks have increased their interventions through a more restrictive policy, and the volumes of investment in countries like Mozambique have decreased.”
Faced with this situation, the CCPM chairmans referred to the role of economic agents in boosting investment, pointing out that “we, as the Portugal-Mozambique Chamber of Commerce, but also on behalf of banks, law firms and other players in the market, have to start publicising the opportunities that our country has. In fact, Mozambique is extremely rich in opportunities, not just in mineral resources, as we have a 2700 kilometre coastline, and we have a huge tourism sector that has yet to be explored. There are opportunities in the agri-business sector, where we need to focus on growing the production value chain.”
In the source’s opinion, there are countless opportunities that “are up to the authorities, the chamber of commerce and other players in the economy: sensitising Portuguese investors to return with the same flow they came with in the 1980s and 1990s, to see if we can attract new investments”.
With regard to the constraints faced by Portuguese companies in operating in Portugal, João Figueiredo explained that the CCPM has legal experts who help and provide input so that the legislative or regulatory authorities can understand the main barriers that the organisation wants to see overcome. “This is how we contribute to building a more favourable economic environment for attracting investment. This is one of the CCPM’s main activities.”
