Mozambique’s Investment and Export Promotion Agency (Apiex) approved 156 investment projects worth US$558 million in the period from January to August, said the national director of Industry, Mateus Mathusse.
The approved projects include almost all economic sectors, but predominantly industry, with 47 initiatives, followed by services, 34, and those related to agro-industry and transport and communications, 22, with 11 for construction and 18 for tourism and hospitality.
Mathusse gave assurances that the proposals have all the necessary conditions to be carried through, as they were approved under the new Industrial Policy and Strategy that defines seven subsectors considered by the government as priorities.
Priority areas include food and agro-industry, clothing, textiles and footwear, non-metallic minerals, wood processing and furniture production, chemicals, rubber and plastics, metallurgy and metal products manufacturing, and the paper and printing subsector.
One of the approved investment projects is from Dutch brewery Heineken, with a production forecast of 80 million litres per year. A plot has already been identified for the Heineken factory in the district of Marracuene, Maputo province, with changes made to the law which governs the Specific Consumption Tax (ICE) and other necessary documents now being processed.
In the non-metallic minerals sector Mathusse mentioned several investments for construction of cement factories, including in Niassa province, where US$20 million will be invested, as well as Cabo Delgado, where the investors of Mehiua Cimentos will apply US$120 million.
Also on the list of large-scale projects is Yara, which intends to produce fertilizers, Shell is interested in producing liquid fuels and Baobab Resources wants to produce 1.3 million tonnes of iron and steel per year.
Apiex is the result of the merger of three institutions – the Investment Promotion Centre (CPI), the Office of Economic Zones of Accelerated Development (Gazeda) and the Institute for the Promotion of Exports (Ipex). (macauhub, photo by Saint-Louis Studio)
