Mozambican medical professionals decide to suspend operations in opposition to the current Salary Table

   File

President's Office of the Medical Association of Mozambique announcement

Subject: Strike by Medical Class

Dear colleagues

Yesterday, October 27, 2022, the Medical Association of Mozambique (AMM) hosted a national conference that gathered numerous medical professionals from all over the nation.

The decision to stage a countrywide strike was made by the class in unanimity during this meeting.

We therefore let you know the following: 1.

The strike will begin at 7 am on November 7, 2022, and last for 21 days with the possibility of extension;

2. With the knowledge of His Excellency the President of the Republic, His Excellency the Prime Minister, His Excellency the Minister of Economy and Finance, and Her Excellency the Minister of State Administration, the strike notice letter and the medical class grievances book were sent to the Ministry of Health this morning.

VOA REPORT

The Mozambican medical profession announced this Thursday, 27, the stoppage of activities in the National Health System sector, in protest against the Single Salary Table, in force since this month in the State apparatus.

After about an hour and a half of analyzing the remunerations that are being paid based on the new table, the medical profession says they have been defrauded by the Government, since the promises that were made do not correspond to what is happening at the salary level.

"We are not being respected," said Gilberto Manhiça, chairman of the Ordem dos Médicos.

The decided stoppage has immediate effects, however, it is still awaiting the decision of the sectors to be covered and that will be announced later today.

Mozambican Association of People: Training legislators on disability and human rights concerns

Starting this Friday, the Forum of Mozambican Association of People with Disabilities (FAMOD) will teach MPs of the Assembly of the Republic in disability and rights issues in Maputo.

According to FAMOD's executive coordinator, Clodualdo Castiano, the training stems from the ongoing process of submitting the Draft Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Mozambique to the Assembly of the Republic.

Mandlakazi to build cashew processing plant

   Photo courtesy of Macao News

A private consortium is investing 225 million meticais (US$3.5 million) for the construction of a cashew nut processing plant in Guezane, Mandlakazi district, in the southern province of Gaza.

According to project owner Super Boa Farm Ltd, construction will be completed in two years and provide 200 permanent jobs. In addition, it is expected that over the next five years at least a thousand jobs will be created.

The company's executive director, Alexandre Mutemba, explained that with the initiative cashew nut production will increase and this will contribute to reducing poverty among local families and mobilising more jobs and tax contributions.

In the first phase, the initiative will directly involve over 500 people and, indirectly, about 1,200 families, mainly small producers of the districts of Mandlakazi and Chibuto, both in Gaza, along with Mabote, Panda, and Funhalouro in Inhambane.

Super Boa Farm financial director, Isac Nhantumbo, says that at the beginning the project will cover an area of one thousand of the seven thousand hectares planned.

 “Currently, we have about 600 cashew seedlings planted since the beginning of the preparatory activity in April. Once it starts operating, the factory will process cashew nuts, as well as produce spirits, biodiesel, and charcoal”, he added.

The first stone for the project was laid by the Secretary of State for Gaza province, Amosse Macamo, who said that Mandlakazi has high productive potential, occupying the top position at the provincial level in terms of cashew nut production. 

He also explained that Gaza province is promoting the production of cashew nuts through the initiative “One family - 100 cashew trees” which includes the creation of polyclonal fields and nurseries to ensure the multiplication and distribution of seedlings.

As a result of the implementation of this initiative, about 74,550 cashew seedlings have been produced so far and planted over an area of 1,043 hectares. This number is expected to increase significantly by the end of the year.

Source AIM 

European Union allocates €28 million for aid to Mozambique

 

Mozambique will receive €28 million from the European Union (EU) to mitigate food insecurity and for emergency aid. Of this amount, €20 million will fund programmes to sustainably increase food security and resilience with the balance for emergency food aid. 

This is part of the €600 million that the European Commission has allocated to the European 

Development Fund to finance immediate humanitarian food assistance, food production, and resilience of food systems in the most vulnerable African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. 

This support, according to a European Union press release sent to AIM, will help partner countries and vulnerable people cope with the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine, specifically the current food crisis and economic shock. 

“The EU’s swift and comprehensive response to the current food insecurity in several vulnerable partner countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific area demonstrates our strong solidarity towards our partners, in particular in Africa”, said Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen. 

 

Mozambique News Agency   Report no.620, 21st October 2022 

Prime Minister highlights positive economic trends

The Mozambican economy continues to grow despite all of the challenges facing the country, according to

Prime Minister Adriano Maleiane. Speaking on 19 October to the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, the Prime Minister pointed out that “despite all the challenges, our country’s economic performance continues to show a positive trend with a growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 4.14 per cent and 4.59

per cent in the first and second quarters of this year”.

According to Maleiane, the positive trend “is a reflection of the actions and measures that the government has been taking in several economic and social sectors, coupled with measures to control the Covid-19 pandemic”. He explained that this growth was driven by good performances in agriculture, fishing, tourism, transportation, manufacturing, mining, and services.

However, he acknowledged that the rise in fuel prices in the international market has influenced the rise of prices of goods and services in the country.

 To mitigate this, the government has been implementing a set of short-term measures focusing mainly on the cost structure of fuel “taking into account its impact on economic activity and our daily lives”.

Maleiane stressed that within the scope of pricing policy “we have been engaging in dialogue, on a regular basis, with the various stakeholders in the process of import and fuel distribution in the country with the aim of finding shared solutions to mitigate the impact of the rise in fuel prices at the domestic market level”.

It was in this context that the Government has reduced the logistic infrastructure costs of fuel for petrol stations by 60 per cent; the port handling fee by 5 per cent for all oil products; the margins of central storage facilities by 30 per cent; and tax on fuel by four meticais (one US dollar is about 63.9 meticais) per litre for petrol and diesel. In addition, the Government has temporarily suspended the correction component in the price structure for fuel and maintained the VAT exemption on cooking gas and paraffin.

As a result, it was possible to set the price of diesel at 87.97 meticais per litre when it should be 103.68 meticais. The same is true of gasoline which is sold at 86.97 meticais per litre rather than 101.57 meticais.

The Prime Minister also told parliamentarians that the measures that the government has taken to increase production and mitigate fuel prices are helping to limit inflation, which last September stood at 8.78 per cent against the two-digit average across Africa and Europe.

Complementing the short-term measures, on 9 August President Filipe Nyusi launched a set of medium and long-term measures to ensure accelerated and sustained growth of the economy. 

The adoption of these measures aims to improve the macroeconomic stability, business environment, and sustainability of the tax system in the medium and long term.

In another important development, the new platform eVisa allows for the electronic pre-approval of visas to foreigners for tourism and business (to attend meetings and conferences), as well as to carry out research. 

This platform is also valid for foreign nationals wishing to apply for pre-approval for visas in investment.

The Government will also submit to Parliament draft legislation to revise several legal provisions such as the VAT Code, Excise Code, Customs Tariff, Corporate Income Tax Code (IRPC), Tax System, Mining Law, and Petroleum Law.

Source: AIM

Mozambique, Angola, and Cape Verde are exploring ways to fund small and medium-sized enterprises.

Companies from Mozambique, Angola, and Cape Verde are seeking for ways to finance small and medium-sized businesses in these Portuguese-speaking nations.

Agostinho Vuma, head of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), stated today at a conference in Maputo that the initiative might help improve the economic environment in these three nations.

"To the extent that our country is experiencing economic growth anticipated for 5%, 5.3% next year, but also as a challenge to handle the fluctuation of options to funding, from stock exchanges, it is a manner of deciding on the alternative to finance our commercial activity," he emphasized.

Agostinho Vuma was speaking today in Maputo at a meeting of CTA, (Cabo verde)Cape Verde, and Angolan representatives.

COVID-19 claims two more lives in M

As of October 25 Mozambique has had two deaths from COVID-19, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health,  two male  Mozambican nationalities  aged between 76 and 46 years.

Regarding the number of new infections, 30 individuals tested positive for COVID-19, of which 23 are of Mozambican nationality, one foreigner and six of nationalities yet to be verified.

MISAU data also indicate that the city of Maputo led the list with 17 cases, corresponding to 56.7%, followed by Tete province with eight cases, equivalent to 26.7% and five cases were diagnosed in the provinces of Inhambane, Sofala , Manica, Nampula and Niassa, corresponding to 3.3% per province.

The positivity rate,  is 2.74%, while the accumulated positivity rate is 12.91%.

Mozambique has, cumulatively, 70,636 positive cases registered, of which 70,320 are locally transmitted and 316 are from abroad.

From Monday to Tuesday, the country recorded 17 fully recovered instances of COVID-19, bringing the cumulative to 69,117.

During the same period, there was a new admission and a hospital discharge.

 In the country, so far, there is a cumulative of 3,420 hospitalized patients, of which 16 are currently in COVID-19 inpatient centers and other hospital units.

Thus, there are currently 682 known active cases of COVID-19 in Mozambique.