MAPUTO– Mozambican Prime Minster Carlos Agostinho do Rosario has pledged that the government will do all in its power to continue creating a macro-economic and regulatory environment which favours the growth and competitiveness of the country’s business sector.
Speaking at the closing session of the Annual Conference of the Private Sector (CASP) here Monday, he said the government was committed to reforming, in the near future, the country’s labour legislation, the law on bankruptcy, the Commercial Code, the building registry code and the code on legal costs.
The government is also committed to concluding a proposal on national content, which he believes will create more opportunities for Mozambican business people to increase their participation in the economy through the linkage of mega-projects with the rest of the national economy.
It has been a recurrent complaint of local businesses that they are excluded from contracts to provide goods and services for the foreign investment mega-projects.
Rosario said the government was finalising a Strategy for Improving the Business Environment, updating its Commercial Policy and Strategy, and reviewing its Land Policy. He said the revised land policy should make this resource increasingly an instrument at the service of the country’s economic and social development.
He also promised that this year the government will set up the High Authority for the Extractive Industry (AAIE). This is a body envisaged by the Mining Law which was passed by Parliament in 2014 and which is still not yet a reality.
Rosario declared that the AAIE will ensure greater benefits from the exploitation of the country’s mineral resources, and greater integration and participation of national content in the extractive industry.
Rosario promised that the State will this year begin paying off its debts to private companies. He said the 2018 State Budget contains a sum of 2.7 billion meticais (about 43.5 million US dollars) which will cover just 17 per cent of the State’s debt to private suppliers.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK