SME Linkages to Mozambique's Extractive Industries
Mozambique's coming resource boom presents a number of opportunities for Mozambican businesses. The question is how can these businesses best participate in the new economy? Experience from other countries shows that SME linkages will not happen automatically, but rather that normally countries have local content / local procurement regulations in place. The question is, what is the appropriate level of regulation in a country like Mozambique, with extremely weak capacity among businesses to respond to demand from the mega-projects.
Regardless of what type of regulatory regime (including no regulations) is chosen in Mozambique, it is clear that some investment must be made to improve the capacity of SMEs to work with the larger corporates. Experience from the South Africa Supplier Diversity Council and elsewhere suggests that these capacity-building programs should be private sector led to be effective.
In October 2012, CTA hosted a pair of seminars in Beira and Maputo to draw from international and especially South African experience to understand what works and what doesn't when it comes to supplier linkages. In addition, on CTA's behalf SPEED commissioned a quick review of linkages experiences in Mozambique to ensure that future efforts learn the right lessons and avoid repeating mistakes of the past
The new report on linkages Mozambique has several programs and/or activities aimed at supporting SME; however, they cannot all be classified as business linkages programs. This report (December 2012) focuses on collaborative business linkages, which are explicitly built up by firms out of mutual interest.