Maputo — The Japanese government has pledged to disburse 60 million US dollars as part of the sum required to rehabilitate about 350 kilometres of the road between the northern Mozambican cities of Nampula and Cuamba.

To that end, Mozambican Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi signed in Maputo on Wednesday an agreement with the Japanese Ambassador to Mozambique, Susumu Segawa, and work on the road is due to start on the last quarter of this year.

This is part of the Japanese Minimal Interest Rate Initiave ((MIRAI), whereby the interest rate on the loan is 0.01 per cent a year.

This project also counts on financing from the African Development Bank and the South Korean government, but the agreements on funding from these two partners have yet to be signed.

Baloi told the signing ceremony that the Japanese funding is of extreme importance to carry out the Mozambican government's priorities to build infrastructures for the country's social and economic development.

For his part, Segawa said he expects "that the implementation of this project will bring good results in the long term and will be economically sustainable".

He noted that this road will help reduce the cost of transport and cut the time for travel between Cuamba, Nampula and the port of Nacala.

Japan announced, during a Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in 2008 that it is prepared to double its financial assistance to Africa for the next five years. Segawa dismissed any fear that Japan may renege on that pledge because of the world financial crisis, and insisted that his government is determined to honour its TICAD promises.