Over 200 Portuguese companies are currently investing in Mozambique, a market in which Portuguese exports are experiencing string growth, Portugal’s secretary of state for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation said in Lisbon.

At a seminar organised by the Santander Totta bank, secretary of state Luís Campos Ferreira noted the infrastructure, energy and transport sectors were those to which “Portugal is paying particular attention.”

The Mozambican market is “strategic for Portugal,” and for the Portuguese economy as “a rise in exports,” is one of the government’s strategies to revitalise the economy, the secretary of state said, according to the Portuguese press.

Figures issued at the seminar showed that by 2017 Mozambique is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 6.88 percent, which is the second highest rate in Africa after Malawi.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects growth of 7 percent this year and 8.5 percent in 2014 – whilst the world average is 2.9 percent this year and 3.6 percent in 2014 – due to investment in infrastructure, energy and natural resources projects. (macauhub)