Maputo — Mozambican businesses should "transform the challenges posed by regional integration into opportunities to display our creativity", declared President Armando Guebuza on Wednesday.

Speaking at the opening session of the 10th annual conference of the Mozambican Private Sector, which this year is focused on the economic integration of the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region, Guebuza stressed "We have comparative advantages that we are still not exploiting sufficiently".

He called for special attention to be given to tourism "and its impact on sectors such as agriculture, transport and communications, banking, construction and the cultural industries".

Mozambican business, he urged, must also produce on a larger scale than in the past. With the southern African free trade area taking effect next year, the market for the country's industries is no longer the 20 million Mozambicans, but the more than 200 million people living in the SADC region.

"Large scale production will open windows for us", said Guebuza, "not only to supply our own districts, but also the markets of the region, and of those other countries and organisations that offer us quotas".

He suggested that the Conference look, not only at the SADC trade protocol, but at other documents that have an impact on regional integration. One of these is the Protocol on Education and Training, under which universities in any SADC country are supposed to reserve five per cent of their places for citizens from other SADC member states.

Guebuza also mentioned the protocol on facilitating movement "which aims to eliminate gradually barriers to the circulation of citizens within the SADC area".

"These two examples serve just to alert our businesses that we should be aware of a range of instruments that are encouraging political, economic and social integration within SADC", he said.

Guebuza promised that the government remains "completely open" to discussions with the private sector "because continued improvement in the business environment and the removal of administrative barriers to investment are at the centre of our agenda".