MacauHub, China

July 16, 2008

Maputo, Mozambique, 16 July – A vast programme of infrastructure construction, funded by the Millennium Account, of the United States, is due to being next September in the centre and north of Mozambique, the country’s authorities announced.

The concession of US$506.9 million is the result of an agreement signed at the end of 2007 between the Mozambican government and the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), set up by the US government to manage an aid fund for poor countries.

According to the Mozambican minister for Planning and Rural Development, Aiuba Cuereneia, at a press conference held in Maputo, “the funding will be used to build roads, water supply infrastructures and agriculture.”

Cuereneia added that the programmes would be implemented in the provinces of Zambézia, in central Mozambique, as well as in Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula, in the north of the country.

The projects will be implemented by the Ministry for Agriculture, the National Roads Administration (ANE) and the Water Investment and Resources Fund (FIPAG), which are expected to involve the private sector in their activities.

Speaking on the same occasion, US senator William Frist, who travelled to Mozambique to assess the conditions to carry out the programmes covered by the MCA, pointed out the merits of choosing Mozambique as being, “the country’s satisfactory response to requirements such as good governance, combating corruption and other democratic principles.”

As well as Mozambique, the US government has selected a further 15 countries to benefit from MCA funding.