Mozambique: Investment is the key to overcoming fragility, president says – Watch

President Daniel Chapo argued on Monday in Washington that investment is the key to overcoming Mozambique’s fragility and its main challenges, including climate change and the insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. “Fragility is a reality in Mozambique, with floods, cyclones and conflict in Cabo Delgado; the solution is investment to create jobs for young people, because unemployed young people represent a major source of fragility,” the head of state said in his opening remarks at the World Bank Fragility Forum, which opened on Monday in Washington, D.C. In a conversation with World Bank President Ajay Banga, Daniel Chapo said that “peace and development are the key to private sector investment”, which he described as crucial for financing the country’s development.

“People in Mozambique want to know how to solve fragility,” the president said, stressing that the country “has many unemployed young people who need skills”, adding that “to combat fragility, the key is investment”. “We have assets in the energy sector, we have natural gas, but in 20 or 30 years it will run out and therefore we must diversify. Last year Ajay Banga went to Mozambique to see our energy assets, which we have in sufficient quantities to export to our neighbours,” said Chapo, emphasising that gas is not only a fuel source but can also be used to produce fertilisers and support tourism, logistics and industrialisation.

In a debate focused on the importance of job creation for the development of countries, Ajay Banga stressed the need to structure the concept of development assistance more effectively and comprehensively, investing in ecosystems rather than concentrating large investments in a single sector or industry. The World Bank, Banga said, is preparing a Fragility Index to help countries anticipate problems because, both agreed, it is easier to invest in preventing serious challenges than to bear the higher costs of financing responses to the consequences of fragility. The World Bank Group expects to mobilise US$2.5 billion (€2.1 billion) for Mozambique over the next five years under its new Country Partnership Framework (CPF), with a focus on job creation to support economic growth.

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“By focusing on economic corridors and sectors with high job-creation potential, such as energy, agribusiness and tourism, we aim to mobilise around US$2.5 billion during the CPF period to help Mozambique transform its natural wealth into tangible opportunities and better jobs, especially for young people and women,” the financial institution said in January. The World Bank’s programme for Mozambique over the next five years provides for the mobilisation of financing instruments from the various entities of the World Bank Group, including guarantees, private sector support and advisory services for the launch of projects in the country.

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