Portugal sets up a 500-million credit line to assist Portuguese investment in Mozambique

The Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro announced that Portugal will set up a 500-million-euro credit line to incentivise Portuguese companies to invest in Mozambique during the statement issued at the end of the 6th Portugal-Mozambique summit in Porto.

Luís Montenegro, who presented the summit conclusions together with the Mozambican President Daniel Chapo, stated that "with this, we wish to bring meaning to the confidence we have in the Mozambican economy and tell the Portuguese companies that we are by this side in their international expansion process". 

He also added that this line is a way of telling the Portuguese companies: "Look at Mozambique and the country’s political and social stabilisation process, as well as its economic ambition".

An agreement was signed to implement the Financial Assistance under the Portuguese Cooperation Entrepreneurial Fund (FECOP) with the aim of making the fund more flexible and better suited to the country’s socioeconomic reality, enabling its expansion to a more significant number of companies. A further 21 bilateral legal instruments were signed.

Revitalising political dialogue

The Prime Minister claimed that "the summit seeks to revitalize the political dialogue between Portugal and Mozambique" in "the year in which we celebrate the 50 years of Mozambican Independence and when we concluded the 50 years since the 25 April1974 revolution".

The summit’s motto, "Partnership and prosperity", seeks to represent the intention of "stimulating a new prosperity cycle", noting the engagement of 23 members of both Governments in themes that cover almost all areas.

Diversifying the Mozambican economy

The Mozambican President Daniel Chapo claimed that the 22 cooperation agreements signed represent both countries’ "joint vision", stressing that "we are at an excellent moment in our bilateral relations".

According to the Head of State, these agreements "seek to increasingly solidify and expand" cooperation between both countries to benefit "both sibling peoples", who must "continue to be united". Daniel Chapo stated that "there are huge opportunities in Mozambique", indicating that the Portuguese investment will generate jobs and income for Mozambican households and return for the Portuguese people.

The goal is to use this new funding line to "diversify the [Mozambican] economy" which is still very much based on extracting natural resources, with the help of the Portuguese companies.

Final declaration

Both countries agreed to include the economic and sustainable development scale in "at the top of the work agenda priorities" in the final declaration.

The text stresses that "expressing the shared political will, both countries will work on implementing a line for funding the Mozambican economy, offered by the Portuguese side to assist corporate investment projects in Mozambique up to 500 million euros".

In the final declaration, it is also envisaged that Portugal and Mozambique will boost the coordination mechanisms to maximise the bilateral funding instruments, "fostering corporate partnerships for economic development and diversification in Mozambique".