The six companies who obtained this seal of approval at the Tuesday ceremony are Kempe (engineering services and maintenance), Higest (production of animal feed), Pierlite (electrical lighting), Pintex (paints and varnishes), Pandora Box (computer services), and Modet (detergents).
To legitimise their use of the "Made in Mozambique" stamp and logotype, managers of the six companies signed agreements with the Director of the Technical Unit for the Promotion of National Products, Claire Zimba, in a ceremony witnessed by the governors of Maputo city and Maputo province, Rosa da Silva and Telmina Pereira.
The companies declared they were well aware of the added responsibilities they now have, deriving from their voluntary participation in the "Made in Mozambique" campaign, with its slogan "Produce Mozambican, Consume Mozambican, Export Mozambican".
They said that it is efficiency in production and continual improvement in the quality of their products that will guarantee the success of the "Made in Mozambique" initiative.
Pereira declared that the certification of these six companies shows the government's concern to value Mozambican production, in the perspective of facing the forthcoming challenges of the southern African free trade area (as from 2008), and the projected customs union (in 2010).
To win their place in the regional and international markets, she stressed, Mozambican companies had to step up their supply of quality products.
Zimba said that these six companies met all the requirements demanded before a company can use the "Made in Mozambique" stamp - among these requirements are that they were up to date with their tax payments. they possessed the necessary licences for the goods and services produced, and they did not owe their workers any back wages.
So far just 12 companies have been granted the stamp - they include Mozambique Airlines (LAM), and both mobile phone operators, M-Cel and Vodacom (even though the majority shareholder in the latter is not Mozambican at all, but South African).
Zimba said there is a queue of over 100 companies that have applied, and her unit intends now to concentrate on those whose head offices are not in Maputo.
SOURCE: AIM
