Maputo — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza said on Friday that the mining industry and the business opportunities it is generating have given greater pertinence and relevance to the government’s focus on sustainable and endogenous development.

Speaking at the eighth annual conference of Mozambican economists, Guebuza declared that the government’s strategy has resulted in the growth of projects that generate income and create wealth in both urban and rural areas, in the increased circulation of money, and in a greater contribution of the peasant family sector of the economy to overall production.

As the economic activity of individuals grew in size, so many moved to formalize their businesses. “Many of our fellow countrymen are passing from the informal to the formal sector and are certainly less poor than they were before”, Guebuza said.

“Indeed, those who have regularly visited the districts and localities of Mozambique note that life is changing thanks to these policies of inclusion, which are carried out through decentralisation and investment in social and economic infrastructures”, he continued.

But Guebuza considered that “even more significant than the integration of more Mozambicans in the formal economy is their rediscovery of their self-esteem which in turn generates self-confidence, and belief in their ability to defeat poverty. It strengthens their awareness that the attitude of the outstretched hand eats away at self-esteem”.

Guebuza recalled that, at the time of Mozambican independence, in 1975, the number of Mozambican economists could probably have been counted on the fingers of one hand. But now the country’s economists, and business managers and administrators could not all fit into the largest conference hall in Maputo.

This had been achieved thanks to the post independence stress on education, including higher education courses in economics and in management, in both public and private universities.

With a large range of trained cadres, Guebuza said, Mozambican could “look back with pride on what we have achieved as a people and look forward with renewed confidence that with this human capital we shall rise to the challenges and impose our determination not to be poor”.

The conference, organised by the Mozambican Association of Economists (AMECON) is being held on the theme “Challenges for the growth and development of Mozambique”.