The UEM presented the project to potential national and foreign partners on Monday.
The coordinator of the ESUDER installation commission, Maqueto Langa, said that a study is still underway to estimate all the needs, but the initial installation will cost 162,000 U.S. dollars.
He said that the needs for the school include laboratories, the purchase of the necessary materials, hiring lecturers, and guaranteeing running costs - all of which will amount to more than 40 million meticais (1.6 million U.S. dollars).
'We are currently using our own resources, but we continue mobilizing more resources from our partners, from the central and provincial governments, because we need more resources to equip the school, to purchase materials, to set up and equip the laboratories, and other investment expenditure', said Langa.
Despite these financial constraints, Langa believes that preparations for the creation of the school are running smoothly.
He explained that the creation of ESUDER has been facilitated since there will be no need to build infrastructures, because the provincial government has given the UEM part of the premises of the Vilankulo pre-university school.
He said that the idea behind the creation of ESUDER is to create conditions to face the problems in Inhambane, sometimes regarded as the poorest province in the country, by giving it development opportunities with resort to knowledge, science and technology.
Inhambane is characterized by extreme climate conditions, being prone to drought and cyclones, but it has natural resources such as timber, natural gas, and citrus fruit.
'It is possible to use the existing natural resources to face such adversities to guarantee rural development', said Langa.
At the end of their three year course, students at ESUDER will be awarded bachelor degrees, and they will be expected to be entrepreneurs, innovators, motivated and practical in solving concrete problems in the community and in the country at large.
In its first stage, the school will offer courses on planning and rural development, agricultural and agro-industrial technologies, management of natural resources, and natural gas engineering.
Langa said that these courses were selected taking into account Inhambane's provincial potential and the country's needs.
In the first year, the school will be open to receive 300 students from across the country.
SOURCE: AIM
