Special Economic Zone of Nacala

The Office for Economic Areas with Accelerated Development (Gazeda) of Mozambique in 2014 reviewed and approved, through its Northern Regional Office, 27 new investment projects, Mozambican daily newspaper Notícias reported.The newspaper cited the spokesman of the regional delegation, Américo José, as saying that the projects in the industry, trade, services, tourism and construction sectors, would all be located in the Special Economic Zone of Nacala (ZEEN).José said the approved projects represent a joint investment of US$353 million, an increase of 9.2 percent over the figure recorded in 2013.The regional delegation spokesman said some of the challenges to growth of the ZEEN included a lack of water for domestic and industrial consumption, the poor quality of electricity, poor inter-institutional coordination, poor quality of roads and a shortage of skilled labour.He said challenges for this year include improvement of access roads, construction of basic infrastructure, especially for water supply, electricity and telecommunications in the Locone and Munheuhene Duty-Free Zones as well as improvements in conjunction with the different partners operating in the Special Economic Zone of Nacala.On Monday, the director of Gazeda, Danilo Nalá, told Mozambican newspaper O País there were investors dropping out of projects in the special economic zone, due to the poor quality of electricity, water scarcity and precariousness of local roads.