![\"Chapoinparl.pres\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/chapoinparl.pres_.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPhoto: Presidency<\/p>\n
Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Thursday stressed that his vision for the coming period is a vision of \u201ceconomic independence\u201d.<\/p>\n
Giving his annual State of the Nation Address to the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Chapo said \u201cthis vision defines the direction of the Mozambican economy for the coming years, seeking self-sufficiency in the production of essential goods and services; financial autonomy; sovereignty over our natural resources and their exploitation; a trade balance with healthy import and export ratios; and export diversification, so that we are no dependent solely on the export of minerals\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are re-organising the economic model of Mozambique and laying the foundations for a modern, diversified and competitive economy\u201d, declared Chapo.<\/p>\n
The first pillar for this strategy was \u201cindustrialisation and the development of value chains\u201d, he said. \u201cMozambique cannot continue depending on the export of unprocessed raw materials. We need to create integrated value chains that are competitive and able to generate skilled jobs\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe objective is clear\u201d, continued Chapo. \u201cIt is to diversify the economy, empower local content, create opportunities for small and medium enterprises, and develop an industrial platform that makes us less vulnerable to outside shocks and more competitive in the region\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Mozambican industry is not advancing: it is going backwards. Earlier this week, the largest industry in the country, the Mozal aluminium smelter on the outskirts of Maputo threatened to close down because it has been unable to reach agreement with the government on the price of the electricity it needs to buy.<\/p>\n
Negotiations have been under way for months, but the differences seem insurmountable.<\/p>\n
According to a report issued on Tuesday by the Maputo-based Zitamar News Service, the maximum tariff that the majority shareholder in Mozal, the Australian company South32, is willing to pay is 6.4 US cents per kilowatt hour<\/p>\n
But the Mozambican government points out that 6.7 cents per kilowatt hour is the minimum that should be charged to cover the costs of generating the 950 megawatts of power that Mozal uses.<\/p>\n
0.3 US cents may not seem very much, but over a year it would amount to 25 million dollars, The government regards this as a subsidy and does not see why Mozambique should pay an annual subsidy of 25 million dollars to an Australian company.<\/p>\n
This month is the deadline for Mozal to buy raw materials and consumables for its normal operations. That deadline is now passing: Mozal\u2019s current plan is to put the smelter on a basic maintenance schedule. It would not be shut down, but it would take 12 months to put Mozal back into operation,<\/p>\n
Given the sheer size of Mozal, it could play a key role in the government\u2019s industrialisation strategy. Dozens of other companies supply goods and services to Mozal.<\/p>\n
Mozal employs 1,100 people directly, and about 5,000 indirectly. Losing all these jobs would be a severe blow to the Mozambican economy. So the government has an awkward choice \u2013 either submit to what is regarded as blackmail by a foreign company, or lose thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n
But Mozal is not mentioned in Chapo\u2019s State of the Nation address. Not a word.<\/p>\n
He did, however, stress the need for boosting the country\u2019s supply of skilled labour. \u201cEconomic independence will only be possible\u201d, he said, \u201cif we train a new generation of skilled, creative and disciplined Mozambicans prepared to compete in an ever more demanding global market\u201d.<\/p>\n
Summing up Mozambique\u2019s current situation, Chapo struck a note of optimism, declaring \u201cthe state of the nation is one of renewed confidence, driving towards sustainable and inclusive development\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: Presidency<\/p>\n
Source: AIM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Presidency Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Thursday stressed that his vision for the coming period is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-193817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}