Mozambican President
Armando Guebuza on Saturday officially inaugurated the new international
airport in the northern port city of Nacala, costing over 250 million US
dollars, and built with the financial support of Brazil.Guebuza declared that
the imposing new buildings are yet further proof that “there are people
committed to the construction of a prosperous Mozambique, and who oppose those
who only know how to make speeches which incite to violence and destruction”. In
a clear reference to Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the former rebel movement Renamo,
Guebuza said he hoped that those who make such speeches will stop doing so “in
order that Mozambique and its people may attain the well-being they long for”. The
President stressed that this airport, which can accommodate planes of any size,
“shows that the development of Nacala is unstoppable”. The airport, he added,
was one of several major investments in Nacala. These include the new coal
terminal at Nacala-a-Velha, and the railway connecting it to the Moatize coal
basin in Tete province, the expansion of the existing Nacala port, and two new
hotels nearing completion.
Guebuza said that, in the
almost ten years of his two presidential terms of office, a great deal has been
done to build the infrastructures which will form the basis for the accelerated
development of Mozambique. Nacala is the fourth major civil aviation investment
of the past decade. The others are the complete reconstruction of domestic and
international terminals at Maputo airport, the rehabilitation of Pemba airport
in the far north, and the transformation of Vilamkulo airport, in Inhambane
province, into an international airport, aimed essentially at the tourist
trade. The first airline using the new airport is Mozambique’s publicly owned
carrier, LAM (Mozambique Airlines). As from last Monday, LAM has been operating
the Maputo-Nacala route three times a week. There are also tentative plans to
fly from Nacala to Dubai and to the Indian city of Mumbai.During the ceremony,
Transport Minister Gabriel Muthisse praised the work Guebuza in transport and
communications, which he described as a continuation of the work he had done
when he held that ministerial portfolio bretween 1987 and 1994. He stressed Guebuza’s
leadership in the construction and rehablitation of rail and port facilities
which are “a major lever for the country’s development”.
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