ROBUST PRIVATE SECTOR NECESSARY FOR DEVELOPMENT

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Monday declared that the government and the Confederation of Business Associations (CTA), which represents the business class must seek solutions to ensure there is a robust private business sector, necessary for the development of the country.Speaking at the opening of the Annual Private Sector Conference (CASP) in Maputo, Nyusi said that only a strong private sector could ensure continued growth of the national economy.Although the programme for the event envisaged a formal opening speech from the President, Nyusi said he preferred to put the formalities aside, in order to advance immediately with a serious debate about matters inherent to economic development.

“I came here to interact with the private sector, so I shall dispense with the speech, so that we can gain time, and all of us can participate in the discussion”, he explained.For his part, the CTA Chairperson, Agostinho Vuma, describing the current economic scenario, listed a range of concerns about financing which were afflicting small and medium enterprises (SMEs).He said that SMEs were a major source of jobs, and made a major fiscal contribution, but they are now under great pressure and their very survival is in question.Vuma recognised that the government has taken measures to adjust the state’s accounts to current reality, but he thought it important to reduce the fiscal deficit, and to adopt a medium term plan of fiscal consolidation. He believed this would speed up the reforms needed for strengthening local content in the foreign investment megaprojects, empowering the SMEs as the main players in business linkages.Vuma insisted that the private sector wants to see a fall in interest rates. The Bank of Mozambique has reduced its benchmark interest rates, but they are still extremely high. The Interbank Money Market Rate (MIMO) is 18 per cent, and most commercial bank interest rates, even for favoured clients, are in excess of this.“We would like to encourage the Bank of Mozambique to go deeper in the reforms and macro-economic adjustments necessary to alleviate the suffocation that the SMEs are facing”, said Vuma.

He believed that, since the annual inflation rate has fallen to just 3.84 per cent, according to the central bank’s own figures, it must be possible to knock another 14 per cent off the benchmark interest rate.Vuma was also concerned at the delays by State bodies in paying the bills presented by private companies. This, plus delays in reimbursing Value Added Tax (VAT), worsened the difficulties faced by companies in 2017.

“Today companies face great difficulties that would be lessened if the State paid the VAT refunds in good time”, said Vuma. “We would like to see a plan to deal with this matter, and better communication with the private sector”.

The Minister of Industry and Trade, Ragendra de Sousa, had harsh words for private business. He said he took the concerns mentioned by Vuma into account, but was concerned that most of the country’s business people did not have the mentality for doing business.He went further and claimed there is no real market economy in Mozambique. Instead, there is “a semi-managed economy among friends”.

“Our great battle right now should be to transform the minds of participants into a march towards development”, said Sousa. “We would like CASP to stop being an institution for whispering, and become an institution where interests converge since, in the end, the three main stakeholders, the government, the private sector and the workers, we all want development and improved living conditions for our people”.

Nonetheless, he added, the government is prepared to listen to all the concern of the private sector, but business people “should take very solid realities into account”.

CONTRABAND MOBILE PHONES SEIZED

Mobile brigades of the Mozambican Tax Authority (AT) in the western province of Tete on Friday morning seized 17,500 mobile phones that were being smuggled into the country. The seizure occurred at the Mboza control post in Moatize district, on the road from the Malawian border to Tete city. The phones were carried on two trucks which also contained office material which had entered the country illegally.
An AT press release said that the mobile brigades seized “about 17,500 Nokia and Samsung Galaxy cell phones of various models plus over 1,010 units of office material”.These items ought to pay customs duties and other taxes of over three million meticais (about 48,400 US dollars, at current exchange rates).The AT release said the seizure was the culmination of thorough work of investigation, intelligence and inspection by the Tete AT staff.“In these situations of trafficking and/or contraband”, said the release, “if the owner wishes to recover his merchandise, he must pay, in addition to the customs duties and other taxes, heavy fines”. Failure to do so, will result in the material reverting to the state. In such cases, the goods are normally sold off at public auction.

"A BAND, A ROUTE"

Portuguese-speaking countries are well-positioned to share the economic benefits associated with the "One Track, One Route" initiative announced by China, Clbrief is a private information service specialized in the Portuguese-speaking world and in China. states that the Chinese authorities have made it clear that the inclusion of the Portuguese-speaking countries in this initiative is possible and adds that these countries have much to gain from China's expansion of the original geographical scope of the initiatives of the New Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road The interest in this initiative has been notable both in Cape Verde and in Portugal, countries that are closer to the original route in terms of geography and that have important strategic links with China.

"In fact, Portuguese-speaking countries share a number of characteristics that make them particularly well placed to benefit from the initiative, such as having international airports and direct access to the sea, whether they already have or should have ports of deep water. "

In São Tomé and Príncipe, for example, the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CBRC) is to build a deepwater port, which the local government intends to transform into a regional navigation center and Guinea-Bissau, another Portuguese-speaking country, China Machinery Engineering Corporation signed in 2016 an agreement with the government to begin construction of a similar infrastructure in Buba, south of the capital Bissau.

Trade between China and the eight Portuguese-speaking countries has grown very rapidly in the past decade and a half, rising from $ 11 billion in 2003, the year of the Macau Forum, to $ 117 billion in 2017, in addition to about 400 Chinese companies applied in those countries capital that exceeded 6,000 million dollars. The published text points out that all Portuguese-speaking countries have strategic value, with Brazil being South America's largest economy and China's main trading partner, Timor-Leste, a candidate for ASEAN, Angola, an African country Which is one of the main oil suppliers to China and is a member of the Southern African Development Community, Mozambique, an East African country that will eventually be one of the largest suppliers of natural gas.

President meets on the basis of armed opposition

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi (hat and blue shirt)  on Monday met with the leader of the Renamo rebels, Afonso Dhlakama (Wristwatch), in the central district of Gorongosa, where Dhlakama has been living since late 2015, to discuss military questions.According to a press release from Nyusi’s office, the meeting took place at Namadjiwa, 40 kilometres from Gorongosa town.The two men discussed “military matters, specifically disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration” (of the members of Renamo’s militia).

The release added “we praised the report from the Military Affairs Commission and clarified the steps to be taken in the incorporation of the Renamo officers”. That incorporation, together with the disarming and demobilisation of the Renamo militia “will allow an end to military hostilities and will open a new era for an effective and lasting peace”.Nyusi did not specifically mention Dhlakama’s demand that leadership positions in the armed forces (FADM) and in the police should be given to Renamo officers. But he promised that the detailed conclusions on the progress so far will be made public “at an opportune moment”.The statement concluded with the reaffirmation that Nyusi and Dhlakama are working closely “to put an end to the armed conflict forever, and to lay the bases for a prosperous and secure Mozambique for all Mozambicans”.This is the second face-to-face contact between Nyusi and Dhlakama since the Renamo leader declared a truce on 27 December 2016. The first such meeting was in August 2017. Most of the discussions between the two leaders have been by phone.

In early 2017, two working groups were set up between the government and Renamo – one on decentralisation and one on military questions. The discussions on decentralisation, held secretively and with no input from other political and social forces, led to a series of constitutional amendments, which Nyusi has tabled before the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.Dhlakama had always focused on the election, rather than appointment, of provincial governors as the key aspect of decentralisation. It was therefore a surprise when the constitutional amendments also proposed the abolition of directly elected mayors of municipalities, and the creation of district assemblies that would choose district administrators. Neither of these points had even been mentioned in public before.The amendments, if passed, will strengthen the power of political party machines. Assemblies will be elected in the municipalities, provinces and districts, and whichever party or group that wins the most votes in these elections will choose the mayor, provincial governor or district administrator.

Maputo water shortage begins

The moderate to strong rain that has fallen in the last few days in the city and province of Maputo and caused urban floods in all neighborhoods and still a tragedy in the Hulene almost did not contribute to the filling of the reservoir the Small Libombos and for that it is a necessity the saving of municipalities of Boane, Matola and the Mozambican capital. However in the Center and North at least two basins are overflowing causing flooding and property damage.

The rainfall, which in the last two days exceeded 50 millimeters in 24 hours, contributed very little to the filling of the reservoir from which the water that supplies the city and province of Maputo comes from.

On Friday (16) the national hydrological bulletin registered a 19.77 percent filler in the Pequenos Libombos dam and, on Tuesday morning (20), had increased only to 20.03 percent.

However, more than raining in Maputo, the filling of the reservoir is dependent on the rainfall that falls upstream of the Umbeluzi river basin that is born in Swaziland, where it flows in 3,140 square kilometers, passes through South Africa and enters our country, where the remaining 2,240 square kilometers, by the border town of Goba.

In the neighboring country it has even been raining but the Mnjoli dam, where the swazis retain the water they also need for their consumption, maintains the same level of filling as the week ending, 47.12 percent.

Rainfall and urban floods in Maputo, Matola and Beira

Photo A Mundzuku Ka HIn Meanwhile, the weather predicts that "moderate to strong" rains will continue in the next 24 hours, which is expected to continue to cause isolated urban flooding in Maputo cities (in the districts of Maxaquene A and C, Luis Cabral, Chamanculo B and C , Munhuana, Xipamanine, 

Airport A and B, Mafalala, Urbanization, Laulane, Costa del Sol, Hulene, Mutanhane, Magoanine) and Matola (in the districts of Machava A, Km15, Nkobe, Tsalala Ndlavela, São Dâmaso, Infulene, Singatela, Clover, Patrice Lumumba, Matola A, D, J, H, F, Kongolote, Fomento e Libertad).

Rainfall is expected to extend to Sofala province where it is expected to flood urban areas in Ndunda, Manga, Vaz, Munhava, Maraza, Praia Nova, Mascarrenha, Macurungo and Chaimite districts (in the city of Beira) and continue to increase hydrometric Pungwe basin, which has been above the alert level in the Mafambisse hydrological station since last week, maintaining the interruption of the road traffic from Mutua to Chissange, flooding of riverside machambas in the low Mafambisse area, isolated floods in the localities of Tsangua, Nharicondza and Matenga and conditioning road traffic on the bridge between the towns of Lomaco and Têxtil, in the Nhamatanda district.

Norte de Cabo Delgado without electricity

Also in the Central Region, the crossing by barge between the localities of Guara Guara and Bandua is interrupted due to the rise of the Búzi river flow.

According to the national hydrological bulletin, the road linking Bandua to Ampara and Guara Guara to the Gruja is also interrupted due to the transshipment of Lake Mucaranga and the rise of the Chiredzi River flow respectively.

Further north of Mozambique, although the precipitation has reduced the Messalo River in the province of Cabo Delgado, it is close to its alert level at the Nairoto station, causing strong currents that overturned a 100KV high voltage tower linking the Macomia Substation to the Owasse Substation, leaving the districts of Palma, Mocímboa da Praia, Nangade, Mueda and Muedumbe, without electricity since Monday night (19).

CNN manipulates viewers!!!

Recently, CNN published a report with serious charges against the Mozambican state of camouflaging operations of North Korea in violation of sanctions decreed by the United Nations. The report itself raises several elements without deepening them or doing any evidence despite mentioning being in possession of documents that so indicate. The mention of support in the installation of military radar systems with photographic and video illustration led to a little investigation of the subject given that once the images are seen for the first time, immediately recognizable the place. 

It is an installation of the TDM operator located on the Beira / Chimoio section, concretely on Mount Xiluvo. The CNN reporter clearly says both in the video and in the photo of the report on the CNN website that it is one of the North Korean-backed military radar installations. The Xiluvo station is widely known as one of TDM's telecommunications centers, which until the early 1980s was part of the telecommunications system known as Troposférico. Of this system were the stations of Maputo-Massinga-Xiluvo (the site in allusion) -Quelimane-Nampula. They will surely be reminded of the huge antennas that existed in the Sunflower building in Nampula and the old Quelimane Airport on Mount Mponduine in Namaacha and Mount Xiluvo. This obsolete systems were dismantled for over 35 years and replaced with HF technology and later by satellite and microwaves. The Monte Xiluvo site has operated to date as a point where several telecommunication links are closed not only from the incumbent fixed operator but also from mobile operators and VHF and UHF (two way radio) radio systems for several companies operating in the region.

In some places such as the Monte Xiluvo case, it is still visible by those who drive in the EN6 towards Beira Inchope or vice versa, part of the structure that supported the huge antennas of the dismantled tropospheric system.

According to CNN, this photo illustrates a military installation north of Beira where a radar system with support from North Korea would have been set up.

This is in fact a TDM telecommunications facility that has been in existence for more than 40 years, known as Monte Xiluvo. It is not to the north of Beira but to the Northwest of Beira. The photo and video were made from the EN6 approximately from the point illustrated and in which you can clearly see on the right two telecommunications towers (1 and 2) with several microwave antennas and more to the center (3) what remains of the antenna support structure of the dismantled tropospheric system and to the left a building (4). The photo of the report and the video were undoubtedly made from the EN6 road near the Xiluvo mountain. You can compare these facts through the coordinates.

The photo and video of the CNN report is undoubtedly of this center that has nothing to do with what is meant to raise the same doubts raised in relation to all the matter treated in a light and awkward way, improper of a channel that is (va) as a source of serious, credible and responsible information.