Maputo — The Mozambican government and the World Bank on Friday signed two agreements in Maputo under which the World Bank is to provide loans of 75.6 million US dollars for projects in health and communications.

The agreements were signed by the Minister of Planning and Development, Aiuba Cuereneia, and by the interim representative of the World Bank in Maputo, Luiz Tavares.

44.6 million dollars will be spent on the health service. Tavares said this would finance the construction of about 25 health centres in the northern provinces of Nampula, Niassa and Cabo Delgado, as well as nutritional education and basic hygiene campaigns. It will also support the programmes to control malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

Tavares added that part of the money will be spent on training health workers, and in assisting the Ministry of Health in drawing up an investment plan for the sector for the next ten years.

"This project will help the country speed up its pace towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals for health", Tavares said. These goals are to cut infant mortality by two thirds between 1990 and 2015, to cut maternal mortality by three quarters over the same period, and to halt and then reverse the spread of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

The six year project costs a total of 72.4 million dollars. The rest of the money consists of grants from Canada (15.6 million dollars), Russia (7.9 million) and Switzerland (4.3 million).

The second agreement, for 31 million dollars, is described as a "Regional Project for Electronic Governance and Communication Infrastructures". According to Cuereneia, this project "will allow a reduction in the prices of international communications and expand the geographical reach of broad band networks to all regions of the country, thus allowing massive access to the Internet".

He added that the project "will allow the establishment of the technological infrastructures that will facilitate and reduce the cost of private investment in information and communication technologies in Mozambique".

The electronic governance component, said Cuereneia, would help modernize the public sector, and make the provision of services to citizens more efficient.

Tavares said that the money would also be used to support the licensing of a third mobile phone operator, and to establish rural "access points" for communication services.

It is part of a regional World Bank communications programme budgeted at 151 million dollars - Tanzania will be the major beneficiary with 100 million dollars, and Malawi will receive the remaining 20 million.