DP World chief Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was granted an audience with the President of Mozambique on the sidelines of an economic summit in the Southern African nation after being invited to deliver the keynote address.
President Filipe Nyusi and Sulayem discussed Mozambique’s growing trade and logistics sector and how DP World was helping “develop and connect Africa’s intra-regional trade routes to unlock the continent’s huge potential”.
Sulayem’s address to the Financial Times Mozambique Summit in the capital city Maputo focused on the importance of partnerships and preceded a forum entitled ‘Accelerating Infrastructure Transformation: Improving Ports, Roads, Airports, Marine Services, Telecommunications and Power Sector.’
“I have been to Mozambique many times and on another recent tour of Africa I’ve seen first-hand how each country is unique. Development solutions lie in partnership of governments, trading blocks in Africa and the private sector,” Sulayem, DP World’s group Chairman and CEO, said.
“Investors want to see policy frameworks, regulations and governance that are promoting trade and development.”
Sulayem said eight of the world’s top 20 fastest growing economies are located across the vast African continent. There has been 6% growth in number of foreign companies investing in Africa and they are thinking long-term – investments into infrastructure related areas such as power, construction and ICT have accounted for 44% of total foreign direct investment into the region.
“We’ve always expressed our readiness to support the development of ports and logistics centres in Africa. We’ve partnered with local governments in all seven of our ports in six African countries and look forward to developing our trade relations further in future years.”
Trade between Dubai and Mozambique was valued at more than AED 724m ($197m) in 2015 and over AED 776.5m in the first six months of 2016, DP World said.
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