Maputo — Gile (Mozambique), 20 Jul (AIM) - Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Friday urged the population of Gile, in the central province of Zambezia, to use the mineral resources under their feet in a properly regulated fashion.

Gile possesses minerals such as tantalite and a variety of precious and semi-precious stones. As a result it has been targeted by illegal miners.

Addressing a rally in Gile town, as he continued his working visit to Zambezia, Guebuza insisted that minerals must be exploited rationally, so as to make a decisive contribution to the fight against poverty.

"As well as its human capacities, Mozambique enjoys very good natural conditions for getting out of poverty", he said. "Gile is an example of this, since it possesses a diversified wealth of mineral and other natural resources".

During the rally, one local resident urged Guebuza to intervene and ensure that Gile's resources benefited the local people, through providing employment and improving the district's infrastructures.

On Thursday, the day before Guebuza's arrival in Gile, the country's main mobile phone operator, the publicly-owned company Mcel, extended its network to cover the district. This is part of Mcel's pledge to cover all of Mozambique's 128 districts by 2009.

Previously it was almost impossible to make phone calls from Gile, adding to the sense of the district's isolation from the rest of the country. Now the Mcel antenna in the centre of Gile town indicates that at least some of the district's inhabitants will have access to easy communication.

Gile residents who spoke to AIM confirmed that prior to Thursday they had been unable to speak to relatives living in other parts of the province, such as the cities of Quelimane and Mocuba. The only means of communication available had been by mail, involving a wait of days before they could hope to receive any reply.

On Thursday, Guebuza warned against any attempt to prevent Malawian traders from operating in Zambezia.

In Morrumbala district, which borders Malawi, he was faced with calls for the government to ban Malawian business people from the Mozambican market. The problem for Mozambican farmers and traders is that the Malawians are undercutting their prices.

At a rally Guebuza addressed, a man named Micheque Fernando pleaded that the government should at least protect locally produced tomatoes. He said that people resettled after the January floods in the Zambezi valley have grown tomatoes, but find they are unable to sell them.

"We spent money to transport our tomatoes to Quelimane (the provincial capital), but nobody buys them, because all the markets are occupied by the Malawians", Fernando said.

But Guebuza rejected appeals for protectionism. He pointed out that during the floods of this year and 2007, and earlier, during the war of destabilisation, many Mozambicans had fled into Malawi, and had received hospitality from the Malawian population.

He called on Mozambicans to compete with the Malawians by increasing their production. "Only if we produce more, and with good quality can we sell without problems", he said. "We have to step up the levels of production so as to supply the entire province, and we still don't have this capacity".

Mz/pf (531)