Date: 11 December 2007 MCLI takes pleasure in forwarding to you ...

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Mozambique extends voter registrationThe Mozambican government says the registration of voters in the country has beenextended to 15 March 2008.Initially, the exercise was scheduled to last for just 60 days from 24 September to 22November 2007, but that was on the assumption that voting in the provincial electionswould be held 16 January. A constitutional amendment passed last week by theMozambican parliament, has made it possible to postpone these elections, and they willnow probably coincide with the parliamentary and presidential elections in late 2009.The government decree, extending the voters' registration period, states that registrationwould be interrupted 16 December for the festive season, and will resume 14 January.(the Investor, www.clubofmozambique.com)ECONOMYPakistan trade team to visit Mozambique in FebruaryHonorary Consul General of Mozambique Khalid Tawab has said that a high-poweredPakistan trade delegation will visit Mozambique in February 2008 to exploreopportunities of increasing two-way trade and investment. He said that two-way tradewas almost negligible and it could be increased manifold with little efforts.Khalid Tawab pointed out that the Mozambique industrial sector was underdevelopedand to meet the local requirement, it imported goods from across the world. Mozambiquealso provides excellent opportunities in investment, and was to provide land free of costfor establishing industrial units, he said. He said in addition to exporting goods toMozambique, Pakistan could benefit from its location and could use Mozambique forexporting goods to other countries in the vicinity. (the Investor,www.clubofmozambique.com)New structure for second largest bankMozambique's second largest bank, the BCI- Fomento, after lengthy negotiations, has anew ownership structure, as of last Thursday, when the long-awaited sale of shares to theMozambican group INSITEC was finalized.The largest shareholder is the Portuguese state bank, the Caixa Geral de Depositos(CGD), whose holding rises from 42 to 51 per cent. A second Portuguese financialinstitution, the BPI (Portuguese Investment Bank) holds 30 per cent, while INSITECholds the remaining 19 per cent. This is the result of the sale of the shares held by thecompany SCI, led by former Finance Minister Abdul Magid Osman. INSITECchairperson Celso Correia, at the age of just 29, will take over from Magid Osman asnon-executive chairperson of the BCI board. Ibraimo Ibraimo, takes over as head of anexecutive commission to run the bank. (the Investor, www.clubofmozambique.com)Guebuza on Public/Private PartnershipMozambican President Armando Guebuza stressed in Kampala last Thursday the need toestablish partnerships between the public and private sectors to promote development. Headded, however, that this implies knowledge of the role each sector has to play, andgiving it its due value.Guebuza said it is the primary responsibility of governments to design policies that createa good business environment by granting incentives and rewards to investors.For its part, the private sector should provide the know-how, technologies and thenecessary finance to make partnership effective. (allafrica)Industry contributes to just 12 percent of GDP total
Mozambique’s industry has a weighting in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP)of just 12 percent, due to a lack of investment in the manufacturing industries, thenational director for Industry, Sérgio Macamo said last Thursday in Maputo.The poor level of influence of Mozambique’s industries on the country’s developmentreflects the situation of most African nations, in which industry contributes less than 15percent, and in some cases less than 5 percent, said Macamo.The focus on exporting raw materials, rather than on the manufacturing sector, is one ofthe causes of the weak impact of industry on the performance of African economies, hesaid. In the Mozambican case, the situation is made worse because most of the country'smanufacturing units are not in operation, Macamo said. (macauhub)Sugar production expected to fall short of targets this yearMozambican sugar production in Mozambique this year will fall short of its 272,000 tontarget, the Center for Agricultural Promotion (Cepagri) said Tuesday, in its report on thethird quarter.According to the report, sector production will total just 265,000 tons, which is 7,000tons less than projected. The deficit also affected cane production, in which the 2.2million tons were projected for this year, and actual production will total 2.18 milliontons.Despite not meeting these targets, “the country will be able to meet the needs of thenational market and the quotas from which it benefits in preferential markets. (theInvestor, www.clubofmozambique.com)Glassware factory to resume production next yearThe glassware company Vidreira, located in the southern Mozambican city of Matola,which has been paralyzed for the best part of a decade, will resume production in mid-2008, according to the National Director of Industry, Sergio Macamo.Vidreira told AIM that a South African group, which he did not name, is taking over thefactory, the only plant in Mozambique which can produce bottles.Macamo declined to say how much money the South Africans would invest in Vidreira.According to Macamo, when Vidreira is again rehabilitated it will provide bottles for themajor Mozambican consumers of glassware - notably, the beer company Cervejas deMocambique, and the local branch of Coca-Cola. (aim)Cotton reference price only in 2008The director of the Mozambique Cotton Institute (IAM), Norberto Mahalambe, hasregretted that so far the producers and buyers of raw cotton have been unable to agree areference price. The IAM introduced a reference price (rather than a legally bindingminimum price) for the first time this year.But Mahalambe told AIM that he hoped a consensus will be reached when negotiationsbetween representatives of the producers and buyers of cotton resume in April.Mahalambe said that the producers are proposing a selling price of 6.2 meticais (about 26US cents) a kilo of raw cotton, while the buyers were prepared to offer only six meticais.At the end of the meeting, the buyers upped their offer to 6.1 meticais.The gap had narrowed dramatically since the start of this year's discussions. (the Investor,www.clubofmozambique.com)Banks making huge profitsThe performance of Mozambican banks during the 2006 financial year was not onlybetter than the previous year's results, but also exceeded the expectations of the banksthemselves. According to the 2007 survey of the banking sector, published jointly by the
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