On his State visit to Australia last week, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza urged businesses in that land to increase their investments in his country. “Today, the participation of Australia in our country’s development projects is well known,” he affirmed, “through the exploitation of coal and the smelting of aluminium at Mozal, but we think we can do much more.” He was addressing Australian business people at a seminar on trade and investment between the two countries.

He highlighted opportunities in the coal, precious stones and natural gas sectors (as well as agriculture and fisheries). He gave the assur- ance that his country was busy rehabilitating its infrastructure, particularly roads, railways and bridges. Furthermore, his government was seeking to ease the bureaucratic processes that foreign companies had to go through to invest in the south east African country. Guebuza also expressed appreciation to those Australian enterprises which had already invested in his country – “we are thankful for your investment, creating wealth, creating goods, creating employment and improving the quality of life of Mozambicans, which are supporting us in fighting poverty in Mozambique”.

A day earlier, in a briefing in Sydney to Mozambican business people forming part of his delegation, Guebuza specifically cited the cases of BHP Billiton, which built and operates the Mozal aluminium smelter near Maputo, and Rio Tinto, which has the Benga coal operation in Tete province. During the briefing, the President also highlighted Australia’s record of support for his country after independence.

In 1975, after achieving independence, Mozambique applied United Nations sanctions against its neighbouring state, the then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). This had serious economic consequences for Maputo. “We received much praise, many nice speeches, but the practical part [promised support] did not happen,” recounted Guebuza. “We received many speeches and promises of support over the decision which we had just taken, but, effec- tively, who really came forward was Australia.”

The Australians have proved themselves to be good and strong friends of Mozambique. Cooperation between the two countries is continually strengthening, in areas including agriculture, education, health, social activities and disaster management. “As you know, today they are in our country assisting in the exploitation of coal, on the foundation of these years of friendship,” he cited. “It is up to us Mozambicans to learn the best lessons of this friendship.”

“We are here to say thank you very much to the Australians for their support and to say that we can do many more things, jointly,” said the President. “One of the things which we can do is to cement this friendship, and the way to cement it is to have more Australian investment in Mozambique.” There are cur-rently ten Australian companies active in Mozambique, undertaking at least 26 projects. They include BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Baobab Resources and Talbot Resources. Mozambique is particularly interested in Australian mining experience, skills and technology.

The Australian government estimates that the country’s business sector has so far invested more than $50-billion in the African state. According to Canberra’s statistics, Moz-ambique ranks 58th in the list of its trading partners. During 2011/12, Australian exports to Mozambique were worth $374-million, and included specialised equipment and wheat. However, Australian imports from Mozambique came to only $14-million.