( 3 minutes read)
· Mozambique’s minister for industry and trade, Carlos Mesquita, said recently that the country should stop being an exporter of primary products and start selling processed products through a focus on the industrialization of the economy
· The minister was addressing a meeting titled as “Domestication of the SADC Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap” as part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) first business forum, which is being held in the Mozambican capital
· The focus on industrialization, he said, would allow raw products to be processed in Mozambique and exported at competitive prices, generating added value for the country
Mozambique’s minister for industry and trade, Carlos Mesquita, said recently that the country should stop being an exporter of primary products and start selling processed products through a focus on the industrialization of the economy.
The minister was addressing a meeting titled “Domestication of the SADC Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap” as part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) first business forum, which is being held in the Mozambican capital. The focus on industrialization, he said, would allow raw products to be processed in Mozambique and exported at competitive prices, generating added value for the country.
Mesquita pointed out some of the aspects that he considers fundamental for the country’s industrialization are strengthening the productive capacity of the national business fabric, training human resources with skills to work in industries, creating a favorable tax environment and establishing links between the raw materials extraction sector and the transformation area. The availability of energy, mineral and forestry resources, and agricultural and fishing potential give Mozambique the basis to transform the economy, the minister stressed. .
Referring to the the recent opening of a factory in the country that produces cement and its raw material – clinker – and the resulting reduction in price on the domestic market, the minister said that the development of the local manufacturing industry was very much
possible.
Mozambique’s trade balance deficit worsened by 43% between 2018 and 2019, to US$2.7 billion (€2.2 billion). This is contained in the according to the latest yearbook of the National Statistics Institute (INE) released recently. The value of exports fell by 6.8% in the period and imports growing by 6.9%.
