23 November 2007
Maputo — The Chief Executive Officer of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector funding arm of the World Bank, Lars Thunell. pledged on Thursday evening that this institution will do its best to improve the investment climate in Mozambique.
Apart from financing private projects, and giving them technical assistance, the IFC is also offering help to the government to improve the business environment.
"The Mozambican economy is growing and the private sector is becoming stronger", said Thunell at a Maputo press conference.
"The IFC can work with the private sector and the business class so that it can improve its performance".
Currently the IFC portfolio in Mozambique amounts to 113 million dollars, invested in eight projects. These include companies in the areas of finance, agro-business, base metals, and oil and gas.
During his visit to Mozambique, Thunell visited some of these projects, and also the country's largest factory, the MOZAL aluminium smelter on the outskirts of Maputo. The IFC is not a shareholder in MOZAL but it finances some of the small and medium companies that provide services to the smelter.
Thunell enthused over Mozambique's gradual climb up the rankings in the World Bank's yearly publication "Doing Business".
Mozambique is now ranked in this publication in 134th place out of 178 countries.
Although both companies and governments tend to treat "Doing business" as a sacred text, it is in fact a shoddy piece of work, relying exclusively on anonymous sources, and frequently inaccurate. Its ideological nature can best be seen by its description of the theocratic regime in Saudi Arabia, where half the population (women) are denied all rights as a "reforming" nation.
Despite Mozambique's advances, more needs to be done, Thunell claimed. Hence the IFC's willingness to work with the government in implementing reforms that will lead to an improved climate for business.
At the press conference, Tunde Onitiri, IFC representative in Mozambique and Angola, announced that the IFC is analysing investment projects in Mozambique for 2008 budgeted at around 30.5 million US dollars. These projects, he said, are in the areas of agro-business and the financial market.
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