News

The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday passed the second and final reading of a bill to set up a Financial Intelligence Office (GIFIM) that will help combat money-laundering.

As of 31 March this year, there were 53,414 HIV-positive people undergoing anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy in Mozambique, according to a report given on Thursday to the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, by the Parliamentary Group on Preventing and Fighting AIDS.

Machaze was the worst district in the central Mozambican province of Manica in terms of the use of the seven million meticais (about 280,000 US dollars) allocated to every district last year for local development projects, according to the Manica provincial governor, Raimundo Diomba, cited in Wednesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza inaugurated on Wednesday a shopping centre, owned by the MBS group, built on prime land in down-town Maputo.

The Mozambican Bakers Association is threatening to hike the price of bread, justifying it with the increase in the price of wheat flour, reports Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".

Mozambican midwives want to dignify their profession, by providing better care for pregnant women and new- born infants, declared the chairperson of the Association of Mozambican Midwives (APARMO), Atalia Nhacutume, on Saturday.

The southern regional branch of the Mozambican ports and railway company (CFM-Sul) has obtained a further five diesel locomotives from India, to add to the 12 currently operating in the Maputo Corridor, and expects to receive a further five by July.

Elections for provincial assemblies, due before the end of this year, could cost up to 45 million US dollars, according to Antonio Carrasco, general director of Mozambique's Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the civil service.

The Mozambican government considers it much more cost effective to build a decent road network that can move grain around the country, rather than invest in an emergency food reserve, the Minister of Industry and Trade, Antonio Fernando, said in Maputo on Thursday.

More than 50,000 HIV-positive Mozambicans are now receiving the life-prolonging anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, announced Health Minister Ivo Garrido on Thursday.

Mozambique's foreign debt stock at the end of 2006 stood at 3.3 billion US dollars, Finance Minister Manuel Chang told the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday.

Donors have praised the Mozambican government's success in 2006 in continuing to expand health and education services across the country.

Thousands of Mozambican workers joined the traditional May Day march through the streets of Maputo on Tuesday, demanding that the country's revised labour law should "maintain labour and union rights".

The chairperson of one of Mozambique's most prominent NGOs, the Community Development Foundation (FDC), and former First Lady, Graca Machel, on Thursday urged young Mozambican women to stand up for themselves in the society.

Mozambican Defence Minister Tobias Dai on Thursday guaranteed that all the arsenals of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM) will be moved out of cities by the end of this year.

The Irish-based mining company, Kenmare Resources, has announced that mining and heavy mineral concentrate production has started at its Moma Titanium Minerals Mine in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula. The mine contains one of the largest deposits of titanium-bearing mineral sands in the world.

The Canadian company Artumas has signed an oil Exploration and Production Concession Contract (EPCC), with the Mozambican government and the National Hydrocarbon company (ENH) for the Rovuma onshore block in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

The Mozambican and Angolan governments signed an agreement in Maputo on Monday which establishes mechanisms for annual consultations on bilateral relations.

The French government's development agency (AFD) has granted 17 million euros (about 23 million US dollars) to Mozambique in direct budget support, and for the development of the Limpopo National Park (PNL) in the southern province of Gaza.

Mozambican sugar production could reach half a million tonnes by 2009, Prime Minister Luisa Diogo said on Thursday.