Maputo — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Thursday reiterated his call for Brazilian businesses to invest in Mozambique.

Speaking during official talks in Maputo with his Brazilian counterpart, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Guebuza said "While our political relations are excellent, and are not bad in other areas, a lot remains to be done to exploit other areas of cooperation, and accelerate your involvement in investment in Mozambique".

Speaking to reporters later, Mozambican Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi said Mozambique has been holding congresses involving Brazilian business people in order to publicise the various incentives adopted by the Mozambican government to attract foreign investment.

At a joint press conference with his Brazilian opposite number, Celso Amorim, Baloi admitted "We must divulge with greater intensity the business opportunities that exist inn Mozambique".

For his part, Amorim said that Brazil could publicise the reality and opportunities that exist in Portuguese-speaking African countries, such as Mozambique, to expand the awareness of Brazilians about Africa.

Amorim said that highly experienced Brazilian industries, notably in textiles, could invest in Mozambique, taking advantage of the incentives offered, the ease of hiring labour, and the easy access to markets in southern Africa, Asia, Europe and even north America.

Immediately before the press conference, the two ministers, and other members of the delegations signed six addenda to the general cooperation agreement between Mozambique and Brazil, in a ceremony witnessed by Guebuza and Lula.

One agreement covers the acquisition of land rights to build a new Brazilian embassy in Maputo, and a Mozambican embassy in Brasilia. The others concern a project in food and nutritional education, and cooperation in the media, cinema and sport.

At a Brazil-Mozambique business seminar, held on Thursday afternoon, Lula called for a redoubling of efforts to increase trade between the two countries.

The current figures show that trade between Brazil and Mozambique barely exists. Between January and September this year, Brazil exported goods worth 20 million dollars to Mozambique (mainly foodstuffs, clothing and footwear), while Mozambique exported nothing at all to Brazil.

Lula declared "The trade imbalance is the greatest challenge posed to our two countries". He called for greater trade and for Brazilian companies to step up their investment in Mozambique, which he described as "an important pole of attraction for investments".

He pointed out that, via Mozambique, in the context of the SADC (Southern African Development Community) free trade area, Brazilian investors would have access to the entire southern African market of 250 million people.

But the balance of trade between the two countries is bound to swing in Mozambique's favour, once the Brazilian mining company, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), starts to export coal from Moatize, in the Zambezi Valley, as from 2010 or 2011. CVRD intends to export Moatize coking coal to steel plants n Brazil, and has spoke of ratcheting exports up to 40 million tonnes a year.

Guebuza told the conference that the CVRD investment has encouraged other large Brazilian companies to enter Mozambique - including the oil company Petrobras, and the construction company Camargo Correia (which leads the consortium planning to build a new dam on the Zambezi at Mepanda Nkuwa).

"These investments have catapulted Brazil to fourth place on the list of foreign investors in the last five years", said Guebuza.

He stressed there were many other areas in which Brazilian companies could invest including transport, infrastructures and tourism. Mozambique and Brazil could also cooperate in biofuels, and in exploiting mineral resources other than coal.

On his two day visit to Mozambique, Lula is accompanied by about 150 Brazilian business people.