The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the need for South Africa and Mozambique to work more collaboratively and to increase strong mechanisms for alignment, joint planning and harmonisation of both countries efforts of containing and limiting the spread of COVID-19. This was said by the Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ms Nomalungelo Gina. Gina was speaking during the South Africa and Mozambique virtual Trade and Investment seminar which took place under the theme Developing Afrocentric solutions and forging partnership in response to COVID-19. The webinar is currently underway and will end tomorrow, 30 September 2020.
More than 300 businesspeople are attending the webinar that is focused on trade and investment opportunities available in Mozambique and also discussing strategic issues regarding Mozambiques investment plans to stimulate the country’s economic growth amid COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Gina, alignment, joint planning and coordination of both South Africa and Mozambique’s efforts will help to contain and limit the spread of COVID-19 across the borders, facilitate the flow of goods and services across the borders and balance, align, harmonise and coordinate COVID-19 pandemic response measures with the requirements for trade, investment and transport facilitation.
“The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense social and economic havoc across the globe. Our two countries, in particular and the African continent at large have not been spared. As a result, we are experiencing, lower levels of economic growth, loss of revenue in both the public and private sector, posing a threat to thousands of jobs and a reversal of the gains made to combat and reduce the high levels of poverty in our societies,” said Gina.
Agaisnt this background, Gina told the audience that it was therefore appropriate and opportune for discussions to begin on the state of affairs within the two countries and to jointly define a package of concrete measures that must be taken to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic and to lay the foundation for economic recovery.
Importantly, Gina noted South Africa’s commitment to work with Mozambique to improve, expand and replicate the Maputo Development Corridor model in other parts of Mozambique and possibly across the region as well. She said the Maputo Development Corridor linking the port of Maputo with South Africa’s industrial heartland is a good example of the importance of bilateral ties between the two countries.
The Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry in Mozambique Ms Ludovina Bernardo invited South African businesspeople to access the Mozambican investment opportunities and partner with their Mozambican counterparts. Some of the opportunities she mentioned include, Free Zones and Industrial parks (Cabo Delgado, Gaza, Sofala, Zambézia), Integrated supply chain markets (supply markets in Maputo, Beira and Nampula), Agro-food and packaging industry, Organic commercial production of other commodities such as cereals, legumes, oilseeds, almonds, in addition to fishery products and local content in partnership with micro, small and medium-sized Mozambican companies downstream from the large Rovuma projects.
“Jointly, Mozambique and South Africa through their private sector can strategically access to European Union, United Kingdom and United States markets through the facilities of the African Growth Facilitation Act that require scale and competitive advantage,” pronounced Bernardo.
Furthermore, Bernardo said that the South African investment portfolio in Mozambique, over the past five years, has enabled the implementation of 316 projects, estimated at US $ 3,390,078,989.00. She added the mission can increase this investment portfolio from South Africa to Mozambique, but it can also move the Mozambican capital and business to invest in South Africa in the coming years.
The webinar will proceed with panel discussions and business-to-business meeting between businesspeople from the two countries. You can access the webinar through the link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Gu-PYcrDSEmJY5PtYnKZwg
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe-Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: (012) 394 1650
Mobile: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Issued by: The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition
Follow us on Twitter: @the_dti
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