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Interview with H.E. Ambassador of Mozambique

Aug 12, 2019

Interview with H.E. Ambassador Mario Saraiva Ngwenya prior to the Russian-Mozambican business forum

WTC: Good afternoon, Your Excellency. Welcome to WTC Moscow! We are very glad to see you here. We are preparing a Business Forum, as you know, with your support. Moreover, I would like to ask you some questions about our bilateral trade and investment relations, and obviously, in preparation for the forum, what is your expected outcome from the forum. The general question is: what is your take on our bilateral trade and economic relations now? What are the strong points of the bilateral relations between our countries?

A: Thank you for the interview and it is my pleasure to be here today at the World Trade Center. Regarding bilateral relations between Mozambique and Russia, I would say it historically comes for a long time, from the moment when we established relationships with the Soviet Union and after that, with the independence we got with the support of Soviet Union - today Russia - we start to have a “strong tie” in terms of economic relations in different sectors. Not coming into details, I can certainly say, that the relations are good, very strong! Today Russian companies work in Mozambique in different sectors, but we are not happy, we feel that we have to do more, with your support and with the support of different institutions. It will be possible to deal with upcoming problems. And for that we are coming to Russia, we invite Mozambique’s companies to work in Russia, to attend the Forum we are preparing with the support of the WTC and the Chamber of Commerce.

WTC: What is the future of our relationships? What will we take from here? Do you see any specific sectors? Maybe a technology transfer will be the most promising and will be the leading one in the future?

A: All sectors are very important, all the sectors are welcome to work with us; I will not come into details. According to the expertise of Russia’s sectors, we will say that oil and gas are very important for Mozambique since we have recently discovered big reserves. And we need the expertise of Russian companies. There are companies that already work for us, but we feel that more and more Russian companies are welcome! The infrastructure, which is also connected to oil and gas, agriculture, finance, credit. Therefore, I would say that those sectors are very welcome to Mozambique, to work, to invest. Another important point for us is technologies, which could be very useful in our development. We need to work with Russia, we need to grow our different sectors working with Russian companies.

WTC: It sounds like the Forum will attract the attention of all of the economic sectors. What do you think will be the role of the business associations, like the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and World Trade Center Moscow and World Trade Centers Association concerning the development of our bilateral relations and overall international trade and economic opportunities?

A: Business associations play an important role in the development of the country. From our side, we have different business associations working with different sectors such as CTA (Business Confederation of business associations). We have the Chamber of Commerce of Mozambique; we have other sectors that are working in this respect. Together with Russian associations, such as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, which we are directly connected to, like the WTC and also other sectors are really important and can play an important role to encourage, to sensibilize the business people to creating partnerships to work together. Now the Chamber of Commerce of Russian Federation and WTC Moscow are preparing the Forum. We do believe that this Forum will be an important point to start and create a useful and important connection between two countries, a specific partnership between Russian and Mozambique companies. Let us bet that this Forum, which we are preparing together, will be a kind of a start of the new page in our cooperation. Moreover, we do need more connections concerning associations to do more, to make this project a reality. We are planning to create a joint Chamber of Commerce of Mozambique and Russia, as it is happening in different countries. I would like to add that it is very important to invite companies from different business associations to create strong and stable business relations.

I would like to invite all the companies, all the business community to attend this Forum, which is really important. The Forum will take place at WTC Moscow. Please, register and looking forward to seeing you at the Forum.

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