Maputo — The Mozambican government’s key economic targets for 2013 include an economic growth rate of 8.4 per cent, and a growth in exports of 14 per cent, reached 3.56 billion US dollars, the country’s Prime Minister, Alberto Vaquina, announced on Wednesday.

Introducing the government’s Economic and Social Plan for 2013 in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Vaquina predicted continuing high growth and low inflation. The average 12 monthly inflation figure over the year should not exceed 7.5 per cent, he said.

The government plans to add 281 million dollars to Mozambique’s net international reserves, bringing the total reserves to 2.72 billion dollars – enough to cover 4.8 months imports of goods and services.

Vaquina said the government intends “to continue creating jobs and a climate favourable to private investment and to the development of the national business class, in a context of protecting and preserving the environment”.

The government, he added, wanted Mozambique to continue being “a competitive destination for public and private foreign investment, while the domestic environment encourages the investment of household and individual savings in productive or business activities”.

For agriculture, the priority was food production to guarantee food security. “We shall also continue activities to promote household and industrial agro-processing in order to reduce post-harvest losses, and add more value to the efforts of producers”, the Prime Minister stressed.

As for Mozambique’s boom in mining and hydrocarbons, Vaquina promised to improve mining legislation “so as to ensure that the Mozambican state and local communities gain more benefits from this activity”.

Measures would also be taken to ensure that the extractive industry becomes “an opportunity for consolidating and strengthening small and medium local companies, and the Mozambican business class”.

In terms of social and human development, he continued, “we shall continue to promote decent housing, education, health, sanitation and water supply – activities that will be expressed in improvements in the quality of life of communities, households and individuals”.

In education, “we want to ensure that all children have the opportunity to finish primary education”, Vaquina stressed. That meant continuing to build new classrooms, and acquiring school desks “so that we can gradually reduce the number of pupils who study seated on the floor”.