The new presidential complex in Maputo cost 71.8 million US dollars,
financed by a loan from the Exim Bank of China, Finance Minister Manuel Chang
told the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday.Answering
a question from the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Chang said
the loan has a maturity of 20 years, and a period of grace of seven years. It
carries an interest rate of 1.5 per cent.The complex includes offices and a
residence for the President, a room for meetings of the Council of Ministers
(Cabinet), a banqueting hall, a car park, and access paths and gardens.The
government had asked for the Chinese loan in 2010, but the project was only
funded in 2013, the year when it was included in the state budget. Dispelling
the idea that there was an
ything secret about the arrangements, Chang said the
funding agreement was ratified by the Council of Ministers on 1 October 2013,
and published in the official gazette, the “Boletim da Republica”, on 15
October.
The Minister said that the state apparatus has become “more robust in terms of
the number of staff it employs and the greater demand for public services by
citizens – hence the need for new public buildings in line with the new dynamic
and new technologies”.This included not only the presidential complex, but new
buildings for several ministries, the National Statistics Institute (INE), the
Mozambique Tax Authority (AT), and the Administrative Tribunal.Chang noted that
the Assembly itself has asked the government to finance a new parliamentary
complex, including accommodation for deputies, which would be built on the
other side of Maputo Bay, in the municipal district of Katembe, at a cost of
443.4 million dollars.The government has approached the Chinese authorities
with this request for funding, and was awaiting a reply.
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