23 November 2007
Kampala — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza stressed in Kampala on Thursday the need to establish partnerships between the public and private sectors to promote development.
He added, however, that this implies knowledge of the role each sector has to play, and giving it its due value.
Guebuza was speaking in Kampala during a gala offered by a local mobile phone company to the participants in the Commonwealth Business Forum, one of the events preceding the Commonwealth summit that opens on Friday.
Guebuza said it is the primary responsibility of governments to design policies that create a good business environment by granting incentives and rewards to investors.
For its part, the private sector should provide the know-how, technologies and the necessary finance to make partnership effective.
Guebuza argued that lack of knowledge, technology and funds is still "a stumbling block to the capacity of business people to undertake the kind of investment capable of generating a strong impact on our development agenda".
"The lack of capacity to generate enough resources to finance infrastructure projects under our control hinders the accomplishment of most socio-economic projects", said Guebuza, addressing an audience that included Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, the presidents of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and of Sierra Leone, Ernest Koroma, and the director of the Commonwealth Business Council, Mohan Kaul.
Guebuza added that a good partnership between the public and private sectors may bring solutions to the problem of investments in roads, railways, ports, telecommunications, and other areas of development.
He stressed that professional training should be a key factor in this partnership, but was currently not being given sufficient priority.
Professional training, Guebuza said, provides a qualified work force, capable of facing the challenges of development through the establishment of micro, small, or medium-sized companies.
Guebuza noted that the values that guide Commonwealth member countries have a significant impact in maintaining an environment that leads to a good partnership between the public and the private sectors. Such values include political stability, abiding by the law, respect for human rights, a multiparty system, and the existence of a vibrant media and a dynamic civil society.
Guebuza said that such a partnership will create many jobs, new products for both domestic and international markets, and will strengthen prosperity in both sectors.
Speaking of the Mozambican experience in public/private partnership, he said the government has adopted legal instruments favourable to investment, including incentives and tax exemption, some of which are applicable to special industrial free zones.
"Mozambique has signed with a number of bilateral partners agreements for reciprocal protection of investment, and is also a signatory to the World Bank's Multilateral Investments Guarantee Agency (MIGA)", he said.
He declared that rehabilitating roads, railways and bridges, and expanding the telecommunications and electricity networks to different areas in the country has contributed to improving the business environment in Mozambique.
Guebuza said that the number of investors, both national and foreign, who have been establishing partnerships with the government ia a reflection of the good business environment in the country.
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