12 September 2008
Maputo — The French Development Agency (AFD) invested 176.4 million Euros (about 233 million US dollars) in Mozambique between 2001 and 2007.
The AFD Mozambique director Bruno Leclerc said in Maputo on Thursday that these investments went to seven provinces, namely Maputo, Gaza, and Inhambane, in the south, Sofala, Zambezia, in the central region, and Nampula, and Cabo Delgado in the north.
Maputo, Inhambane, and Cabo Delgado took the largest part of the investment, with 42.6 million Euros, 30 million, and 22.2 million respectively. 38 per cent of the money has been spent on basic infrastructures
"AFD interventions take two factors into account", said Leclerc. "One is the Mozambican government's strategy in its Action Plan against Absolute Poverty 2006-2009 (PARPA II), and the other is the strategy of the French government towards Mozambique, defined in the context of a document signed in July 2006".
"AFD have health and the environment as the two main sectors where grants should be donated", added Leclerc.
AFD also grant medium and long term loans to both public and private institutions, without state guarantees, as a means to avoid accumulating the country's foreign debt, and without competing with the local banks, he explained.
Leclerk said the AFD is considering financing Motraco, the Mozambican Hydrocarbon Company (CMH), and an aquaculture association in the central province of Zambezia, which is planning to produce prawns for export. The finance for these three companies would be 12.5 million, 20 million and eight million Euros respectively.
Motraco is the company, jointly owned by the Mozambican, South African and Swazi electricity companies (EDM, ESKOM and SEB) that supplies power to the MOZAL aluminium smelter on the outskirts of Maputo. CMH is a company set up in October 2006, as the vehicle for Mozambican participation in the exploitation and processing of natural gas at Temane, in the southern province of Inhambane.
"We are supporting studies estimated at 150,000 Euros to assess the impact of degradation of the environment on the Mozambican economy. This is a project that we are carrying out with the World Bank. We are also supporting the government in defining a sustainable financing policy for the conservation areas", Leclerc said..
"We are also preparing a donation to support the Gile Reserve, in Zambezia, the new phase of the Quirimbas National Park, in Cabo Delgado, and also investments in the Mozambique Prawns Producers Association (APCM)", he said.
AFD has been operating in Mozambique since 1981.
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