11th Annual Private Sector Conference
The Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations held its 11th Annual Private Sector Conference from October 29 to 30. The central theme of the conference was “Productivity and Competitiveness: the Path to the Global Market”, with sessions on transaction costs, agricultural development, and business opportunities, including tourism.
During the opening session, Salimo Abdula, president of CTA, called the private sector, government, and other organizations in Mozambique to take action to increase the Mozambique’s competitiveness. Armando Guebuza, president of Mozambique, emphasized the importance of a competitive tourism industry to Mozambique’s development.
In the next session on transaction costs, Nicola Theron, from ECONEX, a South Africa-based economic policy consulting group, made a strong case on how Mozambique must lower its transaction costs by juxtaposing those costs in a range of areas with South Africa’s. A panel composed of members of the Ministries of Energy, Transport and Communication, Public Works, and Customs, responded to the presentation. Other important presentations included one from Technoserve on competitiveness in Agriculture, and a presentation from Turconsult on investment opportunities in the Tourism sector.
In the fifth session, Martin Webber presented on international experiences with competitiveness, sharing success stories from countries such as Ghana, as well as lessons learned by countries whose lack of competitiveness cost them critical investment opportunities. Todd Amani then presented a statement that spurred substantive dialogue on the World Bank’s Doing Business Indicators, with calls from CTA other members of the private sector to increase the pace of reforms.
At the end of the conference, USAID received recognition from CTA for its support of CTA since its inception. Todd Amani accepted the “Ant Award”, CTA’s highest honor, on behalf of USAID. The honor in prior years has been awarded to Joaquim Chissano, Armando Guebuza, and Luisa Diogo.
Link to Annual Private Sector Conference (CASP) main page