MOZAMBIQUE IS “STRATEGIC MARKET” FOR PORTUGAL TELECOM

Portugal Telecom (PT), the largest telecommunications provider in Portugal, regards Africa as “a priority” and Mozambique as “a strategic market”, according to the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Zeinal Bava.Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Wednesday, marking the second anniversary of the launch of the PT internet portal, Sapo, in Mozambique, Bava said that PT’s ambition “is to be in the Mozambican market in the medium term” – despite the failure of its bid for Mozambique’s third mobile phone licence. Bava explained this failure on the grounds that the bid for the Mozambican licence coincided with a deal whereby PT was selling its shares in the Brazilian mobile phone company Vivo, and acquiring a stake in a second Brazilian company, Oi.PT’s resources were focused on Brazil, Bava said, and so it could not pay due attention to its bid for the Mozambican licence.But, although Brazil was the major priority for PT, this did not mean that the company was about to give up on Africa, or on Mozambique. “We think we have value to add, and we want to work with local partners, so that we can do in the Mozambican market, some of the things we have done successfully in other markets”, said Bava.He regarded Africa as “a continent with all the conditions to be the engine of growth of the world economy”. “We’re not looking just at the countries that speak Portuguese”, he added. “Our focus has to be on where there is the potential and opportunity for us to lever PT’s capacity. We have the financial flexibility that allows us to look for opportunities on this continent”. But he refused to say which countries he had in mind.As for Mozambique, Bava stressed the economic transformations under way in the country, and declared “we have a proposal of value which will be of interest to companies and to individuals”.