Mozambique | Business and Economy News

[alama]

Originally Posted by popa1980

"Consider Mozambique, a nation of 23 million people, which has had strong economic growth for several years, but remains near the bottom of most human-development indexes. Its leaders simply have not delivered."

These big mega-projects which have fuelled Mozambiques growth do not employ many people so that is why poverty has fallen slower than in a country like Ghana where growth was created by agriculture. I hope this time it will be different. Agriculture is where the potential lies inn Mozambique. Its a huge country with a relatively small population. Plenty of unused land.

I will have to disagree with you Popa. Yes, agriculture is good and blah blah... but to say that these projects do not benefit huge numbers of people is simply not true.

Many of the infrastructure being built to accommodate the new mega-projects are being built by locals, using mozambicans labour and building materials.

Are you aware of the number of mine companies that are operating nowadays?
With vast amounts of gas being discovered, new refineries, LNG plants and terminals will have to be built to extract and process the gas...do you know how many people will directly and indirectly benefit from this?

[Kangaroo MZ]

Alama, eu acho que o Popa tem um pouco de razao. Se formos a ver; a agricultura é muito mais importante do que todos esses mega-projectos de hoje em dia. Claro que ele exagerou em dizer que estes nao empregam muitas pessoas, mas se formos a olhar no fundo veremos que quem tira o maior beneficio desses mega-projectos nao é a populacao mas sim os governantes que a cada dia mais ricos ficam.

[popa1980]

Originally Posted by alama

I will have to disagree with you Popa. Yes, agriculture is good and blah blah... but to say that these projects do not benefit huge numbers of people is simply not true.

Many of the infrastructure being built to accommodate the new mega-projects are being built by locals, using mozambicans labour and building materials.

Are you aware of the number of mine companies that are operating nowadays?
With vast amounts of gas being discovered, new refineries, LNG plants and terminals will have to be built to extract and process the gas...do you know how many people will directly and indirectly benefit from this?

Its not really a matter of opinion but a matter of fact. a capital-intensive high tech project like mining or LNG costs a lot but employs relatively few people. if you look at the actual amount of people in nigeria or angola employed in the oil industry it is really small.

for example, you spend £10billion on an agric project and may employ 10,000 people, but £10 billion on a gold mine may only employ 1000 people.

Mozambique has one of the highest growth rates in the WORLD for the last 15 years but if you look at the fall in poverty and HDI it is not as high as you would have expected. Poverty is falling MUCH faster in Rwanda or Ghana because of agriculture.

[BUTEMBO21]

Originally Posted by popa1980

Its not really a matter of opinion but a matter of fact. a capital-intensive high tech project like mining or LNG costs a lot but employs relatively few people. if you look at the actual amount of people in nigeria or angola employed in the oil industry it is really small.

for example, you spend £10billion on an agric project and may employ 10,000 people, but £10 billion on a gold mine may only employ 1000 people.

Mozambique has one of the highest growth rates in the WORLD for the last 15 years but if you look at the fall in poverty and HDI it is not as high as you would have expected. Poverty is falling MUCH faster in Rwanda or Ghana because of agriculture.

I disagree. Mining Employs lots of people. more indirectly, than Directly. When the financial crisis started to tibe in last Quater of 2008. DRC lost 300,000 jobs , all in Mining industry. guest what, most of people (60%) indirect jobs.

Oil and Gas are the ones that don't employ that many people.

However with Mining. Long term employment depends on market prices. ut good thing, it creates high skilled Technical Jobs that can easily be used in non mining sectors.

Agriculture is for as long as the humans live.

[mwanamwiwa]

Originally Posted by BUTEMBO21

I disagree. Mining Employs lots of people. more indirectly, than Directly. When the financial crisis started to tibe in last Quater of 2008. DRC lost 300,000 jobs , all in Mining industry. guest what, most of people (60%) indirect jobs.

Oil and Gas are the ones that don't employ that many people.

However with Mining. Long term employment depends on market prices. ut good thing, it creates high skilled Technical Jobs that can easily be used in non mining sectors.

Like what?

[Kangaroo MZ]

Now in the Central Province of Tete...onshore

Mozambique: Natural Gas Discovered in Tete

Maputo — The mining company Rio Tinto announced on Thursday that it has discovered natural gas in the western Mozambican province of Tete.
According to a report in the Beira daily paper "Diario de Mocambique", the announcement was made by the Chief Executive Officer of Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique, Eric Finlayson, at a seminar on business opportunities in Tete.
Finlayson said that the tests undertaken by Rio Tinto indicate the presence of natural gas within the structure of the coal seams that the company intends to exploit. "This could be a further economic opportunity", he said.
But Rio Tinto does not yet know whether the gas exists in commercially viable amounts. He said that further exploration is necessary to assess the size of the gas deposits, and see whether it is worth exploiting them.
The Minister of Planning and Development, Aiuba Cuereneia, told the seminar that Tete is now at a peak of development, thanks to its great potential in mineral, agricultural and tourist resources. There had been a significant flow of investment into the province in the last five years, with a positive impact on economic growth and job creation.In mining, Cuereneia said that two companies, Vale of Brazil, and Minas de Moatize, owned by the British company Beacon Hill, are now exporting coal from Tete. But a further 36 companies are exploring for mineral resources, mainly coal.
Cuereneia noted that the mining companies also plan to use coal that is not of export quality to produce electricity. Three mining companies - Vale, Rio Tinto and the Indian company Jindal - intend to build coal fired power stations, which between them could generate 7,000 megawatts (more than three times the amount of power currently generated by the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi).
Local Tete businesses and the local farming communities, now had an opportunity and a challenge, Cuereneia said, to provide goods (including food) and services to the mining companies and their workers.

Allafrica.com

[Kangaroo MZ]

Rio Tinto begins coal mining in Mozambique
Mozambican newspaper Notícias reported that Australian mining company Rio Tinto has announced the start of exploration in the Benga area of Moatize district, in Mozambique’s Tete province and the initial lot form the mine is already being processed.

The managing director of Rio Tinto, Mr Eric Finlayson, said in Beira that the company was in talks with Mozambican port and rail manager Empresa Pública Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique with a view to setting up partnerships to fund construction of a branch-line between the railway station at Moatize and the Benga region by 2015.

Mr Finlayson also said that Rio Tinto was seriously considering investing in integrated transport in the Zambezi valley, in Moatize, as well as in the new port on the coast of Zambézia, in Quelimane.

By 2017 the Benga mine will have a power plant fired by coal slag mined by Rio Tinto, and the power produced there may also supply other parts of the country.

Rio Tinto and Brazilian operator Vale Moçambique, which also operates in Tete, together expect to export over 100 million tonnes of coal to India in the next five years.

Source - macauhub and Notícias

http://www.steelguru.com/raw_materia...ue/257009.html

[popa1980]

Originally Posted by BUTEMBO21

I disagree. Mining Employs lots of people. more indirectly, than Directly. When the financial crisis started to tibe in last Quater of 2008. DRC lost 300,000 jobs , all in Mining industry. guest what, most of people (60%) indirect jobs.

Oil and Gas are the ones that don't employ that many people.

However with Mining. Long term employment depends on market prices. ut good thing, it creates high skilled Technical Jobs that can easily be used in non mining sectors.

Agriculture is for as long as the humans live.

Mining provides more job than oil/gas but its still NOT considered a labour-intensive industry like light manufacturing and small/medium scale agriculture. You will find a lot more indirect jobs in manufacturing than with gold mining for example.

You invest $10 billion in mining, and you invest $10 billion in small/medium scale agriculture or light manufacturing (like food processing), the latter would provide way more direct/indirect jobs. Also, agriculture has other benefits like improving nutrition, which improves health. The less people must spend on food, the more they can spend on other things which further stimulates the economy.

Ghana exports from cocoa and gold are about the same value in $$$ but cocoa employs literally millions of people whereas gold much less. Ghanas economic growth has been less than Moz, but Ghana has had a faster fall in poverty and is 2nd or 3rd in the WORLD for decreasing hunger over the last decade. In contrast, Mozambiques growth has heavily relied on expensive mega-projects.

Saying that, LNG plants provide thousands of jobs. Thats one benefit over oil, which is just exported "raw".

[bantugbro]

Originally Posted by Kangaroo MZ

Now in the Central Province of Tete...onshore


Allafrica.com

What else can i say....

[alama]

Originally Posted by popa1980

Mining provides more job than oil/gas but its still NOT considered a labour-intensive industry like light manufacturing and small/medium scale agriculture. You will find a lot more indirect jobs in manufacturing than with gold mining for example.

You invest $10 billion in mining, and you invest $10 billion in small/medium scale agriculture or light manufacturing (like food processing), the latter would provide way more direct/indirect jobs. Also, agriculture has other benefits like improving nutrition, which improves health. The less people must spend on food, the more they can spend on other things which further stimulates the economy.

Ghana exports from cocoa and gold are about the same value in $$$ but cocoa employs literally millions of people whereas gold much less. Ghanas economic growth has been less than Moz, but Ghana has had a faster fall in poverty and is 2nd or 3rd in the WORLD for decreasing hunger over the last decade. In contrast, Mozambiques growth has heavily relied on expensive mega-projects.

Saying that, LNG plants provide thousands of jobs. Thats one benefit over oil, which is just exported "raw".

agree.

[alama]

Nico invests US$2m in Mozambique market
MONDAY, 02 APRIL 2012 10:24

NICO Holdings Limited on Friday announced that it has invested US$2 million (about K336 million) to establish a life insurance company in Mozambique.

Speaking during a press briefing in Blantyre, Nico Holdings Managing Director Felix Mlusu said the company will officially open its operations in Maputo today.

"The company is called Nico Mocambique Vida-Companhia de Seguros S.A and it will focus on selling to its clients in Mozambique an exciting range of services such as life products, group life insurance products and provide pension funds management," said Mlusu.

He said the setting up of Nico Mozambique Vida is in line with the group's African growth strategy and brings the number of countries where Nico is operating to six.

"Through this investment we are exporting products and services and in course of time we will be getting dividends which will earn the Malawi economy foreign exchange.

"Mozambique's life insurance penetration estimated at 0.115 percent and Malawi is 1.2 percent, these statistics indicates that the potential of life insurance and pensions business in Mozambique is huge," said Mlusu.

He said the investment in Mozambique represents a significant and exciting business opportunity for Nico Holdings since the country's real GDP growth which was 7.5 percent in 2011 now forecasted at 7.8 percent this year.

Nico Holdings has 51 percent shareholding in the new company and the other 49 percent is held by IPS and Moz Corp.

The company further said it will continue to expand is businesses to where there is potential across the African continent.

Nico group comprises of Nico Zambia, Niko Tanzania, SFG Insurance Company (Zimbabwe), Niko Uganda, Nico General, Nico Technologies and NBS Bank.

Nico is listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange and as of Friday its shares were trading at K12 each.

The Daily Times

[alama]

Mozambique’s cotton output likely to grow this year


According to Mozambique Cotton Institute (IAM), the country’s raw cotton production is likely to increase by around 20 percent from last year’s 71,000 tons to 85,000 tons this year.

Various factors like availability of better seeds and enhanced technical support from the concessionary firms procuring cotton as well as from IAM are behind this anticipated rise in production, the institute stated.

The institute has positioned its technical staff in all the 20 districts that give priority to cotton production. The IAM employees not only provide seeds, but also acquaint the farmers with use of fertilizers and herbicides to control weeds that they have never used before.

Further, in order to increase production, the institute is also focusing on "advanced producers". While majority of the cultivators undertake cultivation on an area of around 0.6 to 0.7 hectares, these advanced producers undertake cotton cultivation on over 10 hectares of area.

During last year, the institute identified around 100 such advanced producers, who this year would reap their first crop since they started receiving the institute’s help.

The institute aims at steadily increasing raw cotton yields so as to enable Mozambique to reach production levels of 200,000 tons per annum over the next 10 years.

source

[alama]

Atlas Copco Opens a Customer Center in Mozambique

STOCKHOLM, Apr 02, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Atlas Copco has opened a new customer center in Mozambique, strengthening its presence in the country and increasing the support for local customers.

The new customer center will offer a range of products including surface mining, exploration and compressed air equipment, as well as drilling consumables and related parts and services. The customer center opens as of April and is based in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, with a branch office to the northwest in Tete.

“The new customer center opens new business opportunities for Atlas Copco in southern Africa,” says Bob Fassl, Business Area President, Atlas Copco Mining and Rock Excavation Technique. “It brings us closer to our customers, allowing us to provide them with closer support, as well as a wider product offering.”

Atlas Copco previously conducted business in Mozambique through Atlas Copco South Africa and a local distributor network.

Atlas Copco is an industrial group with world-leading positions in compressors, expanders and air treatment systems, construction and mining equipment, power tools and assembly systems. With innovative products and services, Atlas Copco delivers solutions for sustainable productivity. The company was founded in 1873, is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and has a global reach spanning more than 170 countries. In 2011, Atlas Copco had 37 500 employees and revenues of BSEK 81 (BEUR 9). Learn more at www.atlascopco.com .

Atlas Copco’s Mining and Rock Excavation Technique business area provides equipment for drilling and rock excavation, a complete range of related consumables and service through a global network. The business area innovates for sustainable productivity in surface and underground mining, infrastructure, civil works, well drilling and geotechnical applications. Principal product development and manufacturing units are located in Sweden, the United States, Canada, China and India.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://www.cisionwire.com

SOURCE: Atlas Copco

Market Watch

[Hadrami]

Ey wassup Alama.
You’re doing an excellent job in here.

[Kangaroo MZ]

China-Mozambique: Chinese grant for transfer of technology
News - Africa news
Transfer of technology China-Mozambique - China has made two million US dollars available for the third stage of the development of the Umbeluzi Research and Transfer of Agricultural Technologies Centre in Boane district, Maputo province. Mozambique's Minister of Science and Technology, Venancio Massingue, announced the Chinese grant, after an audience he granted to the Chinese Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Niu Dun, who concluded a working visit to Mozambique on Sunday.

During the third phase, Massingue said, several technologies will be transferred, after which Mozambicans will be better able to apply the knowledge in increasing agricultural production and productivity through improved seeds.

To this end, a group of ten Chinese scientists is shortly expected to arrive in Maputo to train Mozambican technical staff.

"In this phase of exploring the existing potential in the Boane centre, we must learn how to apply science to improve production and productivity so that we can raise yields in some products from the current one to 1.5 tonnes per hectare to nine or ten tonnes per hectare", said Massingue. "That is the task of research institutions".

He added that the funds made available by China will support the training of Mozambican scientists, extensionists and farmers, as well as technological development and the transfer of technologies, which Massingue regarded as indispensable weapons in the fight against poverty.

"The scientists are our new soldiers, who are waging this struggle, not with guns, but with the development of knowledge", he declared.

Niu Dun said that economic and social development needs science and technology, particularly in the agricultural sector.

"On my return to China", he said, "we shall analyse all possible ways for obtaining more support and organising trips at the highest level between the Mozambican Ministry of Science and Technology and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, in order to strengthen the historic cooperation between the two countries so that we can advance to new projects".

Niu said that China favours promoting mechanized agriculture in Mozambique, in order to contribute to the struggle against poverty.

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique/03/04/2012

http://www.afriquejet.com/transfer-o...040336290.html

[Kangaroo MZ]

Mozambique: Farmers benefit from US training

Mozambique's mango growers are now in a better position to preserve and market their produce thanks to training they are being provided with by a Mississippi State University Specialist.

Barakat Mahmoud, an assistant research professor of food safety and microbiology with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, recently spent three weeks in the African country training 13 agriculture agents as part of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Farmer-to-Farmer program, implemented by CNFA. CNFA is a Washington, D.C.-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving economic growth in developing countries by training the private sector.

Mahmoud taught the agents how to dry foods, analyse the quality and food safety, natural preservation methods and how to process mangoes.

"Mangos are abundant in the marketplace and bring a very low price," Mahmoud said. "Farmers in this area of Mozambique lose about 80 percent of their product every year after harvest. They can sell only a small amount of the fresh product before it spoils."

Whilst he was in Mozambique, Mahmoud visited markets and it was here that he realised there was a lack of processed mango products - jams, juices etc. He only managed to find one dried mango product and this, he says, was of a very low quality.

"Their markets had none of these preserved products that would be very easy and inexpensive for them to produce," Mahmoud said.

Those who have received the training will now go onto train others, passing on their knowledge to the wider agricultural community.

"We want to establish agents who can teach the farmers to produce a marketable product," Mahmoud said. "The equipment to make jams, jellies, juices and dried fruit is not very expensive."

The trainign is not limited to those involved with the mango industry and will also take in those involved in the production of cassava and beans, amongst other crops.

"Farmers in developing countries often do not have access to the technical assistance they need," said Lauren Day, Southern Africa Program Coordinator with CNFA. "Dr. Mahmoud’s technical assistance can help these farmers overcome post-harvest and marketing challenges."

Source: msucares.com

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detai...5#SlideFrame_1

[Kangaroo MZ]

Mozambique Sets Up Inter-Ministry Team on Mining-Tax Proposals
By Fred Katerere - Apr 3, 2012 2:53 AM PT

Mozambique set up a team of officials from the finance and mineral resources ministries to propose how to calculate taxes on gains on the sale of shares or companies, national mines director Eduardo Alexandre said.

“We started on the exercise two months ago,” Alexandre said by phone from the capital, Maputo. “We have to finish it as soon as possible and incorporate it into the revised mining law, which is currently under debate.”

The proposal will establish guidelines on how much a company pays to the nation’s government when it sells shares or the whole company, he said, declining to say when the proposal would be ready.

Mozambique is home, along with Tanzania and Kenya, to the biggest natural-gas discoveries in a decade. It's reviewing petroleum and mining laws as it looks to benefit from higher commodity prices. Eni SpA (ENI) and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) found gas under the ocean off Mozambique, while Vale SA, the largest iron-ore exporter, and Rio Tinto Plc (RIO) have coal assets there.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...posals-1-.html

[bantugbro]

Originally Posted by Kangaroo MZ

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...posals-1-.html

Good move, they need to make sure that whatever they come up with will benefit the country for next 15-25 years...

[popa1980]

Originally Posted by bantugbro

Good move, they need to make sure that whatever they come up with will benefit the country for next 15-25 years...

at last! Mozambique has let itself get exploited for too long.

[Kangaroo MZ]

...

Chinese technicians set to support improved agricultural yields in Mozambique
April 5th, 2012 MH News

Ten Chinese technicians are due to arrive in Mozambique “soon” to support the country in its efforts to improve the yields of a variety of crops, said Venâncio Massingue, Mozambique’s Minister for Science and Technology, cited by radio station Rádio Moçambique.

The Chinese technicians will work with a group of young Mozambicans for three years at the Umbeluzi Centre for Agricultural Research and Technology, in the Boane district, 30 kilometres to the south of Maputo, and which was built with aid from China.

The Minister said he believed that once that period ended the Chinese technicians would have transferred a lot of their knowledge to the young Mozambican technicians, which would make it possible to “increase current levels of productivity.”

He also noted that work would focus on improving seeds to improve their germination.

Yields per hectare of a number of crops including rice, wheat, and beans, are “very low” according to Massingue and the Mozambican authorities want to establish partnerships to change that situation.

Rice and maize production, for example, according to Massingue, is not more than 3 tons per hectare, and the Mozambican authorities aim to increase that yield to 9 to 10 tons per hectare.
The Chinese technicians’ stay will be funded by US$2 million provided by china as part of the third phase of development of the Umbeluzi-based Mozambican Centre for Technology Transfer. (macauhub)