CHINA CANCELS INTEREST ON MOZAMBIQUE’S DEBT

China has pardoned part of Mozambique’s debt by cancelling any interest on the debt that had not fallen due by 2015.The Chinese government has also announced that the interest rates on future loans will be revised downwards, to below the current 1.5 or two per cent. President Filipe Nyusi revealed these changes on Saturday to the Mozambican reporters who had accompanied him to the China-Africa summit in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton. He said these measures would allow greater Chinese support and investment in the country, and more flexibility in servicing the debt. Nyusi revealed that he had obtained these results in his audience with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.He added that foreign financing of the country should be aimed at levering the economy. It should contribute towards empowering the national business class, and providing the skills people needed so that they can be employed. The latest figures on indebtedness, from 2014, are that the total Mozambican debt to China then stood at 886 million US dollars.Nyusi described the summit as a success, not only because of the large number of African heads of state and government who attended, but above all because of the quality of the discussion and the results achieved.“It wasn’t a meeting of donors, or of requests”, he said. “Partnerships were discussed. We want a partnership, real cooperation, and not just stretching out our hands”. He called for greater speed and aggressiveness on the part of Mozambican businesses in order to exploit the opportunities that China is offering.