Maputo — Two Chinese banks announced in Beijing on Thursday that they are willing to finance three mega-projects in Mozambique totalling 165 million U.S. dollars.

This was disclosed during a meeting with the Mozambican Prime-minister, who is on a five day official visit to China.

Of this amount, 65 million will be disbursed by the Export-Import Bank of China, whose vice president Zhu Hongjie said that it is earmarked for the second and final phase of Maputo International Airport upgrade, to begin later this year.

For his part, the president of the Chinese Bank for Development, Jiang Chaoling, revealed that his institution will disburse a sum of 80 million US dollars for the construction of a new cement plant in the central province of Sofala, with capacity to produce 500,000 tonnes per year.

He added that hat his bank will also provide an additional sum of 20 million US dollars to finance the construction of a cotton processing plant in Magude, in the southern province of Maputo.

The Chinese authorities also said that the Africa-China Fund has more than five billion dollars provided by the Chinese Government to support the development of African countries that make up the China-Africa Forum.

Meanwhile, the Mozambican Finance Minister, Manuel Chang, who is also one of the members of Ali's delegation, told reporters that China is also willing to finance other projects in Mozambique in the next few years.

To that end, Mozambique will submit a number of projects to the Chinese government which could be funded by either Chinese commercial banks or by the China-Africa Fund.

Among the projects under discussion in Mozambique there are a number on agriculture and livestock development, road construction, expansion of electricity grid, dams, mining, and everything is being done to start the sooner possible.

It is in this context that Mozambique's Prime Minister will visit the Chinese province of Hubei, one of the regions dedicated to agriculture production.

Besides visiting agricultural regions, Aires Aly is also expected to attend a conference on agricultural and economic cooperation between this Chinese province and Mozambique, with special focus to the district of Chokwe, in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, where Chinese technicians are disseminating advanced techniques in rice production.

Source: AIM via allAfrica.com