Mozambique highly appreciates agricultural cooperation with Vietnam

Last weekend, in Maputo capital city of Mozambique, the delegation from the Vietnamese government led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri and the delegation from the Mozambican government led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Manuel José Gonçalves held the fourth meeting of the Vietnam-Mozambique Intergovernmental Committee on Economic, Cultural, Scientific, and Technological Cooperation. The Vietnamese Ambassador to Mozambique, Mr. Pham Hoang Kim, also attended the meeting.

At this meeting, the two sides exchanged information on the political and socio-economic situation of the two countries and reviewed the implementation of cooperation agreements in the fields of political diplomacy, economy, trade, agriculture, fisheries, science - technology, telecommunications, health, education - training, culture, security - defense, finance, mining, construction, banking, and provincial cooperation. The meeting also aims to exchange development directions for bilateral relations between the two countries in the 2023–2026 period.

The two sides realized their continuously consolidated political and diplomatic relations after the visits of high-level delegations between the two sides, especially the visit to Vietnam by Ms. Esperança Laurinda Niuane Bias, President of the Mozambican Assembly (June 2022).

At the third meeting in June 2014, the deployed agreements achieved encouraging results, especially in the fields of telecommunications, agriculture, security, and defense.

The two sides affirmed their commitment to continue to strengthen trade promotion activities via exchanging business delegations, connecting trade, and encouraging businesses to participate in major international fairs and exhibitions held in each country.

At this meeting, the Mozambique side highly appreciated the achievements in agricultural cooperation between the two countries in recent times. In particular, the bilateral cooperation projects, tripartite cooperation projects, and training programs of Vietnam for Mozambican agricultural officers have contributed to enhancing the capacity of Mozambique’s agricultural sector.

The two sides agreed to promote the implementation of a cooperation project called "Promotion Cooperation on Rice, Soybeans, and Vegetables in Central Mozambique in Phase II of the 2023–2026 period".

The two sides recalled the special success of the online conference between General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong and the President of Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and President of Mozambique Filipe Jacinto Nyusi (June 2022) and the online talks between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries (April 2023). During the talks, the two sides affirmed their mutual support at multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations.

The Vietnamese side proposed to continue strengthening trade and investment promotion activities between the two countries by promoting the exchange of business delegations, connecting trade, and encouraging businesses to participate in international fairs and exhibitions in each country.

The Vietnamese side suggested Mozambique continue to create favorable conditions for Vietnamese businesses to seek investment and cooperation opportunities in the coal field in Mozambique to serve domestic demand and create conditions for Movitel Company (a joint venture of Viettel Telecom in Mozambique) to actively participate in the digital transformation process in Mozambican government agencies.

At the end of the meeting, the delegation heads of the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the fourth meeting of the Vietnam-Mozambique Intergovernmental Committee. The two sides proposed to hold the fifth meeting in Hanoi in 2026.

During their stay in Mozambique, the Vietnamese delegation also held conferences with Mozambique’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture, paid a courtesy visit to Mozambique’s Minister of Fisheries, and paid a working visit to the Embassy of Vietnam in Mozambique and Movitel Company.

Movitel, a joint venture of Viettel Telecom in Mozambique, is the largest mobile operator in Mozambique with 4 million customers, accounting for 38% market share. It owns the biggest telecom network with 3,000 2G/3G base stations, 27,000 km of fiber optical cable covering 80% of Mozambican population. Movitel contributes 70% of the country’s fiber optical cable, making Mozambique among the top three nations in terms of fiber optical cable infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This infrastructure enables Mozambique’s telecommunication industry to implement the E-Government and Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) applications in the education and healthcare sectors for socio-economic development.