GUEBUZA URGES UAE BUSINESSES TO INVEST

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Sunday urged businesses from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to invest in Mozambique “before it’s too late”.Speaking at a meeting in Dubai, with around 30 UAE business people, including the chairmen of companies that participate in the Mozambique-UAE Business Forum, Guebuza declared “Come and invest now. We shall receive you with open arms. If you delay, it could be too late”. Included on Guebuza’s delegation for his four day working visit to the UAE are 14 Mozambican businessmen, with interests in the areas of hydrocarbons, electricity, tourism, agro-business, transport and finance. Guebuza listed several reasons why businesses from what is one of the strongest economies in the Arab world should wish to invest in Mozambique, including a good investment climate and the availability of natural resources.He mentioned the massive reserves of natural gas recently discovered off the coast of northern Mozambique – but stressed this did not mean that attentions should be drawn exclusively to this resource.“We don’t want to be a country exclusively of gas”, said Guebuza. “We also want to focus our attentions on all the other areas that contribute to the growth of our Gross Domestic Product, such as agriculture and tourism”. The UAE has considerable experience in diversifying its economy, in order to ensure that the country does not depend solely on petroleum revenues. Dubai, for instance, has become a major tourist attraction, and the city includes the largest shopping centre in the world, as well as the world’s tallest building. GDP in Dubai does not depend on oil, but mostly on sectors such as tourism, transport, trade, construction and financial services. Guebuza stressed that investors in Mozambique also have access to the SADC (Southern African Development Community) free trade area, and hence to the South African market. Since Mozambique is covered by the United States’ African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), goods produced in Mozambique also have access to the US market. The Emirates businesses at the meeting expressed optimism about Mozambique’s potential. “The location of Mozambique is strategic”, one of the businessmen said. “Furthermore, the country has recorded noteworthy economic growth”. “When we travel to other countries, we are treated as investors”, he added, “but in Mozambique we are treated as brothers. So we shall do all we can to ensure that the UAE are not just investors, but serves as platform for cooperation with the Arab world”. Before travelling to Dubai, Guebuza visited the refinery in Abu Dhabi, the political capital of the UAE, and the Abu Dhabi shipyard, where ships of all types are built. At the refinery, petroleum engineer Mohamed Abbas Alkhoori explained that the company currently produces 85,000 barrels a day, compared with the 15,000 it produced when it started operations in 1976.