Mozambique’s first car factory is due soon to start operating in Machava, in the city of Matola, and is in the final stages of installing its equipment, Mozambican weekly newspaper Domingo reported.

According to the newspaper, the project is coordinated by the ministries for Science and Technology, and for Industry and Trade, whose ministers, Venâncio Massingue and Armando Inroga, are charged with setting up the factory in the country’s largest industrial hub, located in southern Mozambique.

The future factory to build “Matchedje,” the name of the vehicles that will be built there, is being built in the industrial hub of state port and rail company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM). Its main investor is China Tong Jian Investment, based in Shanghai, in which New Zealand’s Morgan Foundation is the largest shareholder and focuses its business on promoting China-Africa relations.

In all US$150 million is due to be invested, and in this initial phase US$15 million will be spent to manufacture 30,000 vehicles over the next year, 5,000 of which will be trucks, 22,000 will be cars and 3,000 will be buses.

Arão Nhancale, of the Matola municipal council, was cited by the newspaper as saying that the vehicles that will be produced by what will be Mozambique’s first car factory will have a Mozambican brand.

Although the newspaper did not explain the name, “Matchedje” is the name of a village that hosted the 2nd Congress of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in 1968, and is now a national heritage site. (macauhub)