Thursday, March 6, 2014

PRESIDENTIAL COMPLEX COST 71.8 MILLION DOLLARS

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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