The Government of Vietnam welcomes and will facilitate the cooperation between Vietnamese and Japanese businesses in Mozambique to help with local development, a diplomat has said.

The seminar is held by the Vietnamese Embassy in Mozambique in Maputo on October 9

Vietnamese Ambassador to Mozambique Le Huy Hoang made the remark at a seminar in Maputo on October 9 that discussed ways to bolster economic and investment partnerships between Vietnamese and Japanese firms in the African nation.

The event was attended by representatives of the Japanese bio energy firm NBF, the Japanese-invested agricultural development company in Mozambique ADM, Movitel – a telecom joint venture of Vietnam’s military-run telecom group Viettel in Mozambique, and many other Vietnamese businesses.

Hoang congratulated Movitel and ADM – two leading Vietnamese and Japanese firms in Mozambique – on their recent successful partnership and being chosen by the World Bank to carry out three of the six components of a project on improving the life quality and financial access for the poor in remote areas of Mozambique.

He added the Vietnamese and Japanese governments have been encouraging cooperation between businesses and relevant agencies of their countries to assist Mozambique to promote socio-economic development.

The diplomat also briefed participants about the success stories and cooperation experience of Vietnam and Japan in Mozambique, including the collaboration between Vietnam and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in implementing a trilateral project to help Mozambican people improve rice productivity.

Tasuku Futamura, a representative of ADM, and Koji Hanawa, First Secretary in charge of economic affairs at the Japanese Embassy in Mozambique, gave more details about the ADM-Movitel partnership in carrying out the WB project. They spoke highly of Movitel’s capacity and strength, expressing their hope for more support from the two governments for the project implementation.

Movitel and ADM have been carrying out the first component of the WB project in Nampula province since July 2018. The first phase, scheduled to last for three years, aims to provide financial transaction services for 100,000 local low-income households with over 1 million USD transacted each month.