Japan may resume loans to Mozambique

Maputo, 17 Jan (AIM) – The outgoing Japanese ambassador, Hajime Kimura, has said that Japan may resume loans to Mozambique by the end of the current year, if economic performance continues to improve significantly.

According to Kimura – who was speaking to reporters on Tuesday, shortly an audience granted to him by the Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, as his term of office in Mozambique comes to an end – the loans are concessional and have very favorable conditions.

“The loans have interest rates of 0.01 percent, to be repaid in 40 years, including a 10 year grace period. Unfortunately, they are on hold because of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) assessment”, he said.

“Mozambique was in debt distress, which means that it was not in a position to repay. That’s why we had to stop. Now Mozambique is at high risk”, he explained.

According to the Japanese diplomat, in order to be eligible, Mozambique needs to improve a little more, “maybe then we can start again. I hope that happens this year, but it all depends on the Mozambican government, but we are also helping to improve the financial situation through technical cooperation.”

Regarding the audience granted to him by the President, he said “I’ve come to thank the President for the cooperation I’ve received during the three years and 11 months I’ve been here. During that time, we’ve managed to do a lot of work. We were able to accomplish a lot of things, thanks to the collaboration of the Mozambican government. I really enjoyed this work.”

“For example, we worked together to combat terrorism in Cabo Delgado. We have programmes to help internally displaced people, through international NGOs”, he added.

He also expressed his country’s willingness to continue working with the Mozambican government to improve security conditions in Cabo Delgado, although some terrorist attacks are continuing to take place.

“We are currently working with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to rebuild the town of Mocímboa da Praia. We still have many projects. For example, we have supplied equipment to the maritime police and others to the border police. We also supplied 70 fishing boats to Pemba, but they haven’t arrived yet, and we supplied water purification trucks three years ago”, he said.

(AIM)

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