adminHARARE – Mozambique is eager to escalate economic relations between Harare and Maputo and has identified the transport sector as a crucial enabler to the envisaged co-operation.
Mozambique is a strategic economic partner for Zimbabwe which uses its port facilities to receive imported goods.
Zimbabwe also relies on Mozambique to transport its fuel via a pipeline or by road.
Outgoing Mozambican ambassador to Zimbabwe Pedro Davane said various transport infrastructure projects had been lined up.
“After having served here for five years and six months I am very happy with relations between the two countries at a political level. They are excellent they have always been excellent what we need to do now is to pay more attention to the economic part of our relations,” he said after bidding farewell to President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday.
“The Zimbabwean economy is about to take off, to boom and of course it will involve a lot of exports and for exports to move speedily you need to have a very good port and railway network and this is an area my government is very much interested to work with Zimbabwe. There are so many ideas there and sooner or later we are sure some of the projects will take off.”
The governments of Mozambique, Botswana and Zimbabwe have expressed willingness to revive the Techobanine Port construction project in Matutuíne district, Maputo province.
The partnership project will see the construction of a 1 700 kilometre railway line extending across the three countries, linking Francistown in Botswana, Bulawayo in Zimbabwe and the Mozambican port of Techobanine to facilitate enhanced regional trade.
According to the MoU for the project, which was signed in 2016 by the three countries, each country is expected to provide $200 million towards the cost of the project with the rest of the work to be done through public-private partnerships.
Upon completion, the venture will facilitate inter-regional trade through the movement of passenger rail traffic and up to 12 million tons of goods per annum through the three countries. – New Ziana
Online Reporter