Finance terrorism want to recolonize

The President of the Republic says that the financiers of terrorism in Cabo Delgado have political interests which aim to destabilize and colonize Mozambique to plunder resources. Speaking in Maputo at the opening ceremony of the VII National Youth Conference yesterday, Filipe Nyusi encouraged young people not to accept being used for evil actions.President Nyusi used the youth event to present his revelations and send a message to people inside and outside the country. Addressing an audience of young people, Filipe Nyusi accused external entities and even nations of financing terrorist actions to target the government, create instability and plunder resources in Mozambique.

“In our country, we are experiencing terrorism created and financed by evil forces. If these people have weapons, the question is: where do these weapons come from?” Nyusi asked. He then argued that “they finance [terrorism] as part of this theory of disorder and political instrument. The country was moving at cruising speed; many projects were underway in Palma, at sea and on land. There were resettlements; fishermen from Palma began to earn more because there was already a market. They do this to solve their problem, causing suffering to the Mozambican populations. The objective is to perpetuate the suffering and poverty of Mozambicans, as they are not nationals, and to create conditions for the plunder of our resources”.

The President of the Republic further says that these external financiers want to recolonize the African continent in general, and Mozambique in particular. “It is a new form of colonialism. Fortunately, we hoisted the flag, we have our sovereignty, but they want to make money by creating disorder. They articulate with the aim of using youth to create instability. Unfortunately, some minds, not only of young people, are financed and used with the aim of recolonizing Africa and plundering Mozambique’s resources. They use money to manipulate the conscience of young people to join the disorder and perpetrate acts against their own homeland, against their own communities, but never against the nations of those who finance. And we wouldn’t want our young people to be paid to make trouble in another country,” Nyusi explained.

Such entities, adds Filipe Nyusi, operate within the country, trying to influence government decisions.

“We are not evading our responsibilities. Not infrequently, they appear to condemn the Defence and Security Forces when they act in defence of Mozambicans and all who reside in Mozambique. When it all started, they always complained that we weren’t looking for support, but we were still trying to understand the phenomenon. Let’s imagine it was an internal conflict, as we had in the past. Why should we turn to other countries to solve our problem? When the conclusion was reached that it was terrorism, we invited partners to help us and these same people again criticize our choices. The question we pose is: what is the profile of those who fight terrorism?”

Filipe Nyusi took the opportunity to praise the bravery of young people defending national sovereignty and fighting terrorism in the Northern Operational Theatre. “These young people are real, of all ages and genders. They join the experience of the elders to fight this evil. At the moment, actions to pursue terrorists are underway in the dense forests between the Messalo and Montepuez rivers. They are stampeding, but the forest is thick and it is not easily penetrated,” he said.

In another development, Filipe Nyusi acknowledged the difficulties the government faced in finding employment for all, but said this should not be used to sabotage actions. “Our government is fully aware of the challenges faced by Mozambican youths who live the reality of limited formal and informal employment opportunities. On the other hand, it evaluates with indignation the associated evils, such as crime, drug trafficking, excessive alcohol use and prostitution, among others.”

But these are not the only evils pointed out by Filipe Nyusi. As if in response to recent demonstrations, Nyusi recalled that vandalism does not solve problems, but slows down the country’s growth.

“We build a new road and someone comes along and burns tires and damages that same road. After that, cars can crash, cars can break down, and who benefits from that? Then we start spreading rumours. Challenges should not encourage our young people to think about engaging in illicit acts or participating in terrorist acts or other crimes tending to destroy their own country and their own future.” In speeches made this Monday at the opening of the 7th National Youth Conference, the leadership of the National Youth Council demanded more government support for youth initiatives, while representatives of the United Nations Fund for the Population expressed willingness to support the government and leverage the same.

 

 

Mozambique Fashion Week

Every year, Mozambique Fashion Week (MFW) seeks to expand, to leverage national production in the industry and offer its many followers a quality event with a variety of designers and models that add value to the event, to the fashion sector and to Mozambican arts and culture. MFW acts also as a platform for discovering, encouraging, training and promoting Mozambican fashion. We believe that part of this comes from giving openness and ease to young and small entrepreneurs to walk and take their small steps to conquer their careers and business success.According to the statement sent to Moz Entretenimento, the MFW team will be receiving applications for its 18th edition, where designers and models can showcase their talent and take their place in the fashion world.

 Enrolment for candidates in the areas of fashion, design and catwalk have been taking place on the event’s website since July 18. This is a different system from previous years, when enrolment took place in person. For this year’s edition, the production hopes to continue to attract fashion designers and models with talent and technical capacity to surpass the numbers obtained in past events. Last year alone, the team received more than 1,300 entries for models and 150 applications for designers, of which 60 models and 70 designers were selected for the big event and were able to showcase their talent and creativity. As always, MFW wants to encourage designers and new talents to think outside the box and present new, unique and competitive ideas that can inspire a totally different experience for the audience or final consumer, showing their full potential for the success of their brands.

In addition to filing the enrolment form available online, on the MFW website, designers must make sure that their sketches and mood boards are delivered to the Maputo offices of DDB Moçambique, the company organising the event, by the last day of registration, Thursday, 18 August. Applications must be sent taking into account the Mozambique Fashion Week category in which candidates intend to participate, eitehr ‘Young Designers’ or ‘Marcas'[‘Brands]’.

CNE has 6% of the money

The global cost of Mozambique’s electoral cycle for the years 2022 to 2025 is budgeted at just over 18.7 billion meticais, according to a National Elections Commission document seen by ‘O País’. Of that amount, the budget for 2022 is estimated at around 3.2 billion meticais. According to the CNE, around 1.2 billion meticais is currently available for the preparatory phase, which includes voter registration. This represents a shortfall of just over two billion meticais.

 “We still lack two thirds of the amount needed for preparatory activities,” the CNE document reads. For the 2023 financial year, the budget foreseen by the CNE is around 6.7 billion meticais, with more than 8.7 billion meticais needed for 2024-2025.

“We are working with the Government to find a way to address this situation, including the chronic problem of the lack of adequate facilities for the National Elections Commission at central level,” the CNE report adds.

According to the same source, the costs of the electoral process “will be exacerbated by the need to observe health protocols in preparations, voter registration and voting [itself]. We are interacting with the Ministry of Health to see how we can carry out all our activities without major risk to voters and everyone involved in the process”. Voter registration (from scratch) for the country’s sixth municipal elections will take place from 20 February to 5 April, 2023, under a decree recently approved by the Council of Ministers. Municipal elections are scheduled for the 11th of October next year, and the general and district elections for 2024. Mozambique’s last municipal elections, which happen at five-year intervals, took place in 53 municipalities on October 10th, 2018.

 

 

Business

The Commerce, Industry and Services Association (ACIS) of Mozambique on Wednesday advocated changes in the legislation on hiring foreign labour to make the regime more flexible, and that Mozambique’s diplomatic missions enjoy more autonomy in granting work visas.

“The legislation and regulations inherent to the hiring and legalisation of workers of foreign nationality must be changed, so that they are adapted to current needs,” ACIS says in the recommendations following from a survey it carried out and which was released yesterday.The other recommendation is to grant independence to diplomatic and consular missions in approving or refusing visa applications.ACIS also asks that additional requirements demanded of foreign workers by Mozambican public administration officials be regulated and standardised.The authorities should also standardise the procedures to be followed by diplomatic missions in processing visa applications.

“The public administration must conform its computer system with the legal formalities inherent to each procedure,” the document reads.ACIS understands that the Mozambican state should be held accountable for “damage incurred due to the non-observance of the law” in the granting of visas, identification documents and residence permits for foreigners. The investigation found there were risks of corruption in the granting of visas and the process of hiring foreign labour, including bureaucratic dispersion, procedural requirements not provided for by law and lack of standardisation of the requirements applied by diplomatic and consular missions.

benefit from US package of humanitarian assistance

The United States government has just announced a financial package of more than 127 million dollars for humanitarian assistance to Africa, including Mozambique. “This assistance will provide vital support to refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, stateless and persecuted people across Africa, including those affected by crises in Burkina Faso, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Niger, and other new and protracted displacement situations”, said a statement from the US State Department. The announcement of the support was made last Friday in Ghana by the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. In addition to emergency needs, according to the statement, the aid will also support durable solutions for former refugees who wish to return to their home countries.

“This assistance will enable our humanitarian partners to help many of the more than seven million refugees and asylum seekers currently housed in Africa, as well as the more than 25 million internally displaced people”, it says.These funds, adds the document, will provide life-saving and life-sustaining support to forcibly displaced populations, including those affected by the growing global food crisis and shortages and their host communities across Africa.

“We call on other donors to provide additional support to meet the growing humanitarian needs on the continent”, it stresses.Thomas-Greenfield also warned African countries against breaking the sanctions imposed on Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine, and denied that the sanctions themselves are having an effect on food security.“Some folks have come here and told you that Western sanctions are to blame for rising food prices”, she said. “The fact is that our sanctions are targeted at Putin and his supporters, not agriculture and food, which are specifically carved out of the sanctions. Let me say that again since this is such a regular piece of disinformation: America’s sanctions do not, let me repeat, do not apply to food and fertilizer exports. Period”. She pointed out that “Russia itself is taking steps that limit exports to the world. For example, Moscow has imposed export quotas on nitrogen and complex fertilizers that will be in place until at least the end of the year. A lack of fertilizer today bakes in a food security crisis for tomorrow. Russia also imposed extra duties on its own farmers’ grain exports, even though Russia had a bumper crop this year”. Speaking in Kampala last Thursday, Thomas-Greenfield warned that, where sanctions are in place (on Russian oil, for example), countries should not consider violating them.

“If a country decides to engage with Russia where there are sanctions, then they are breaking those sanctions; they’re breaking our sanctions and in some cases they’re breaking UN sanctions with other countries, and we caution countries not to break those sanctions because then, if they do, they stand the chance of having actions taken against them for breaking those sanctions”, she said.

Could this affect Mozambique? 

Last week, the Russian ambassador to Maputo, Alexander Surikov, proposed the sale of cheap Russian fuel to Mozambique – but he stipulated that any purchase would have to be in the Russian currency, roubles. The Bank of Mozambique does not have large amounts of roubles available for foreign trade transaction, To pay for the fuel in roubles would mean selling other currencies to the Russian central bank in order to obtain roubles. The Bank of Mozambique would have to consider whether it is really worth surrendering some of its reserves in dollars or euros in order to acquire roubles. Asked about the Russian “offer”, the Mozambican Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Carlos Zacarias, was cautious. “I’m sure we shall study the viability of this offer”, he told reporters. The original idea to import Russian fuel came from the Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA). The CTA clearly did not consult any of the main players in the fuel business. The independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique” points out that the main fuel distributers (such as the French TotalEnergies or the Portuguese Galp) have no intention of violating the sanctions against Russia. Fuel traders (such as Vittol or Trafigura) are branches of western multinationals, and will also steer clear of taking any measure that could be read as violating the sanctions.

 

 

Measures to stimulate economy

Mozambican president on Tuesday announced 20 measures to stimulate the economy, including a 22% reduction in the rate of corporate income tax (IRPC) and a 1% reduction in value added tax (VAT). The 20 measures are part of the Stimulus Package for the Acceleration of the Economy [PAE], which Filipe Nyusi disclosed in an address to the nation, aimed at responding to the needs of growth of the country, the negative impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, of the armed violence in Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique, and of the natural disasters.The measures announced lower the IRPC from 32 percent to 10 percent in agriculture, aquaculture and public transport, and VAT from 17 percent to 16 percent in agriculture and renewable energy.

The Mozambican head of state also pointed to the introduction of tax incentives for new investments over the next three years, but did not give the rates of these incentives.In the package announced, the share of revenues from natural resources transferred to the provinces where they are extracted will rise from 2.5 percent to 10 percent and a US$250 million (244.4 million euros) loan guarantee fund will be created so that the banks can provide credit to the economy at more accessible interest rates. The SAP introduces mandatory blending of imported fuels with biofuels, “aiming to generate more jobs and induce more private investment in the value chain of agricultural production.”

Filipe Nyusi, who is also head of government, also announced a general review of entry visas to the country, with exemption for citizens of countries with low immigration risk and granting of investment visas with longer periods to foreign citizens holding investments in Mozambique.In the same framework, the conversion of simple short-term tourism visas into mixed tourism and business visas is foreseen.

“To facilitate the acquisition of visas, we will introduce electronic visas for citizens of countries not covered  the visa waiver,” Nyusi stressed.

The range of measures also provides for adjusting labour and investment laws with a view to making them more attractive to foreign investment, creating stable and quality jobs, transferring skills and building the capacity of Mozambican workers.The package also calls for simplification of administrative processes, reforms in the justice administration system, as well as the creation and implementation of the sovereign wealth fund. Filipe Nyusi also highlighted the need for reform of the state’s internal audit subsystem, efficiency of public administration and strengthening the system of supervision of social security funds. The Mozambican head of state said that the measures he announced today had been drawn up in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and would have an impact in the short, medium and long term.