Portuguese Seek Future in Mozambique
EUROPE, 2 Apr 2012
Andrew England in Maputo – The Financial Times
In the late 1990s, Cecilia Marques, a Portuguese dentist, was offered a job in a new dental school in Mozambique – one of Africa’s least developed nations that was slowly rebuilding after years of civil war.
At the time she dismissed the idea as “crazy”. But more than a decade on it is anything but that, with Mozambique’s economy forecast to grow at 7.5 per cent this year, while unemployment rises in Portugal as the economy contracts under the weight of the eurozone crisis.
Ms Marques, 43, moved to Maputo, the Mozambique capital, just over a year ago, joining her husband who set up shop in the former Portuguese colony after his software business back home hit tough times.
The couple are among growing numbers of Portuguese who have fled the economic woes in their home country and headed to one of the world’s poorest but fastest growing nations in search of new opportunities. The phenomenon is in many ways a reverse brain drain – instead of qualified Africans leaving for developed nations, many of those beginning new lives in Mozambique are professionals, including dentists, lawyers, architects and engineers.
“Every time you see the news or talk to someone, they paint such a grim picture (of Portugal) . . . That’s what I have heard, one of the worries is all the trained people are leaving so who is going to be left to work?” Ms Marques says. “My husband says there’s so much to do here, whereas in Europe it’s the opposite – everything is done.”
It is estimated that there are about 20,000 Portuguese people in Maputo. Graca Goncalves Pereira, the Portuguese consul-general, says the number of people registering at the consulate increased by about 10 per cent in the past couple of years, with more than 1,000 people registering in 2011. As there is no obligation to register at the consulate, the figures are not an accurate reflection of the total number of Portuguese moving to Mozambique but are an indication of the trend.
Ms Goncalves Pereira adds that many are looking beyond Maputo, where property rental prices have soared, to areas such as the port city of Beira and coal-rich Tete in the north-west.
Portugal’s economic crisis has coincided with a spike in investor interest in Mozambique, one of several Portuguese-speaking nations in Africa. The southern African nation has been one of Africa’s top growth performers in recent years, and significant coal and gas discoveries have brought unprecedented attention to the nation.
“There is a crisis in Europe and our companies bet on foreign markets, especially those countries that speak Portuguese,” says Patricia Gaspar, an official at the Portuguese embassy. “Angola [another former Portuguese colony] is a more mature market so it’s exploited for us . . . so Mozambique is now the target.”
Another important factor in the improvement in relations between the two countries is the agreement by Portugal in the mid-2000s to sell an 85 per cent stake in the Cahora Bassa Dam, a critical generator of electricity, to Mozambique. Portugal had retained control of the dam after independence in 1975, creating a long-standing point of contention between the young nation and its former colonial master.
Portuguese banks already have interests in Mozambican counterparts, while Portucel, a paper and pulp company, has land use rights for approximately 360,000 hectares in Mozambique as it looks to develop plantations and commercial farming.
Sumol Compal, a Portuguese beverage company, is establishing a manufacturing plant in Maputo for the local market, as well as for exports across southern Africa. Construction and IT companies have also moved in to Mozambique as small and large businesses follow suit.
“It’s a bit like selling a dream – a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” says Adolfo Correia, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce Mozambique/Portugal. “The big contribution to Mozambique from the Portuguese . . . is diversity. They come in restaurants, in bars, in car repairs, metal and machinery equipment . . . you name it.”
But it is not always plain sailing. Ms Marques speaks of the frustrations of dealing with a developing world bureaucracy, saying it took her nearly a year to get her documents in order so she could work as a dentist.
There are also quotas on the number of foreign workers that can be employed at local companies and some Portuguese return home after failing to make a success of the move.
“Everything happens at a very slow pace,” says Manuela Figueiredo, a magistrate, who followed her husband to Maputo but has been able to do only voluntary work. She says Portuguese lawyers who were born in Mozambique before independence are applying for Mozambican citizenship to get around foreign worker restrictions.
The influx of foreigners could also stir frustrations among Mozambicans. “These people coming from Portugal don’t bring money and many of these people are not high level . . . they compete with local people,” says a Mozambican banking executive. “And this could be a problem in the future.”
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