TOURISM investment opportunities are available now in Mozambique, the country’s Tourism Minister Fernando Sumbana Jْnior announced at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference 2008 held in Dubai last month.
Four key areas had been identified. This initiative is expected to generate over $1 billion investment in the country’s emerging tourism sector, which, as one of the poorest countries in the world but with some of the most spectacular beaches stretching for some 2,700 kilometres, sees tourism as a potential lifesaver.
Last year, with the support from The World Bank and USAID, the government had said that revenue from international tourists rose to over $144 million, a 50 per cent increase in just two years.
“We have identified specific areas in Mozambique for investors to come to right now. It is all ready; there is no bureaucracy or problems regarding aquiring land,” Jْnior told TTN.
“At the same time we did feasibility studies on those sites identified as the Anchor Investment Sites, showing the character of the areas and the probabilities of the type of investments that can take place there.”
He stressed the government’s aim was to encourage sustainable development, low density high yield projects in an environmentally friendly manner.
The Anchor sites were formed by the Mozambique Tourism Anchor Investment Programme, a joint initiative of International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and the Ministry of Tourism.
So far interest has materialised predominantly from potential investors in Dubai as a result of his AHIC attendance, but Jْnior was also keen to reach other Gulf States. “Investors will have to prove they are going to be environmentally responsible and are going to build a project in an area where they have the required expertise,” he said.