The Mozambican government is preparing a draft local content law with a view to regulating business links between major projects and small and medium sized Mozambican companies, reports the Maputo-based daily Notícias.

Meetings organised by the Ministry of Economy and Finance together with the Confederation of Mozambican Economic Associations (CTA) are being held around the country to discuss the proposed legislation, the newspaper indicates.

The first meeting was recently held in the city of Pemba, Cabo Delgado province and the second in Beira, Sofala province. Another is due to be held this week in the city of Maputo. The meetings’ aim is to gather private sector contributions before drawing up the final document for submission to parliament for consideration and vote.

A CTA source told Notícias that the increase in natural resource exploitation and the higher number of Mozambican companies supplying services to large projects “brought major challenges to the country, specifically the need to capitalise on that increased investment.

To do so, “it is important to adopt mechanisms that oblige large projects to incorporate national content in their activity, thereby guaranteeing the participation of Mozambican companies,” said the source cited by the newspaper. (Macauhub/MZ)