Good afternoon. President Daniel Chapo has returned to one of the themes of his inauguration speech in January: renegotiating concession agreements with private investors in sectors like mining and forestry, in order to increase the benefits that the country gets. Well, up to a point. Speaking to journalists in Nampula province, Chapo talked about the need to renew contracts that were coming up for renewal, with companies like aluminium maker Mozal, South African petrochemicals firm Sasol and heavy mineral sands miner Kenmare. The president has considerable experience of dealing with communities who live next to natural resources projects run under concession contracts: Inhambane province, where he was previously governor, is home to the Pande and Temane gas fields operated by Sasol, and he was also a district administrator in Nacala, home to the Nacala coal railway terminal, and Palma, close to the gas project which was then being developed by Anadarko, and now by TotalEnergies.
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Chapo talked a lot about how “Mozambique is not the same as 20 years ago”, roughly when those contracts came into force, but ultimately he was offering to do no more than negotiate changes in contracts when they have to be renewed.
