Trade, Industry and Competition Deputy Minister Nomalungelo Gina has said South Africa will continue to invest in Mozambique’s booming gas market where one of Pretoria’s major banks has splashed out US$120 million to boost gas production.
Gina said this on Tuesday during a South Africa-Mozambique trade and investment webinar themed “Developing Afrocentric Solutions and Forging Partnership in Response to Covid-19”.
During the discussions, the deputy minister said that the country’s Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) had in fact ramped up the multi-million-dollar investment in the energy infrastructure project in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province.
“As we all know, Mozambique’s new growth opportunity is anchored on the large natural gas reserves and the associate liquefied natural gas project in the Cabo Delgado Province,” Gina said.
In this regard, the South African public and private sectors were actively involved in this “very important venture” through the US$120 million investment by DBSA, Gina told delegates during the virtual meeting.
The deputy minister noted that her country “is one of Mozambique’s great and major trading partners and is also a major investor in that country.”
“Mozambique is among South Africa’s top five trading partners in Africa, and our political and economic relations have remained strong and vibrant over the years,” she added.
Gina explained that several local companies and state-owned enterprises have invested in Mozambique across a broad spectrum of sectors since the advent of democracy in Pretoria.
She gave the example of South 32, a South African aluminium mining firm, which she said had created thousands of jobs for Mozambicans as one of those investments in the neighbouring state.
NM/jn/APA