By MOZTIMES
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Monday began a three-day working visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at the invitation of the UAE President, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
A press release from Chapo’s office said the purpose of the visit is “to strengthen political and bilateral cooperation relations and mobilise investment for strategic projects”.
Speaking to reporters at the start of the visit, the Mozambican Minister of Transport and Logistics, Joao Matlombe, said that one of the central moments of the visit will be Chapo’s participation in the Sustainability Summit, to be held in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.
The Minister believed the Summit would provide a platform for mobilising financial resources for key sectors of the Mozambican economy. By this, Matlombe meant “strategic projects in infrastructures, energy, agriculture and tourism, which are extremely important sectors for us to drive our economy”.
Matlombe added that the Mozambican experience of managing extreme climatic events will be shared during the high level meetings at the Summit, bearing in mind Mozambique’s vulnerability as a coastal state.
The country has been battered by extreme events regularly in recent years, the Minister pointed out, making it a reference point for questions of mitigating and reducing the negative impacts of climate change.
Despite the heavy storms the country has suffered repeatedly, it has reduced significantly the number of deaths, said Matlombe. He described this experience as “an important asset to be shared with other countries”.
In the fight against climate change, Mozambique “has succeeded in saving lives and building more resilient infrastructures”, he said.
Mozambique’s previous experience with the UAE has been less than happy. The UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, also houses shipyards and other facilities of the Privinvest group, which was at the centre of the country’s largest financial scandal, known as the case of the “hidden debts”.
Privinvest spent hundreds of millions of dollars bribing Mozambican officials (including the then Finance Minister Manuel Chang) and bankers from Credit Suisse, to smooth the path for three fraudulent Mozambican companies, Proindicus, Ematum and MAM, which obtained loans of two billion dollars from Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia.
As part of this deal Privinvest sold the three Mozambican companies fishing boats, patrol vessels, radar stations and other assets at grossly inflated prices. An independent audit showed that Privinvest had overpriced these goods by around 700 million dollars.
Last year, a London judge ruled that Privinvest should pay the Mozambican state 2.3 billion dollars in compensation for the losses incurred in the fraudulent deal. (MT)
