The Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim resumed negotiations with the Mozambican government on Brazilian support for the construction of a factory to produce anti-retroviral drugs in that country. About US$ 480 thousand are now available to begin a feasibility study.
“We are doing technical analyses. While we discuss the factory, it is necessary to prepare cadres. There have to be scientists and specialized personnel, and we discussed that. We can also expand the existing program to take care of more people, starting with medications produced in Brazil or even in other countries.”
Amorim affirms that Brazil can help Mozambique in quality control of Aids treatment drugs imported from other countries.
During Amorim’s visit with the country’s President, Armando Emílio Guebuza, the two governments signed a letter of intention providing for the exchange of technical information with the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation.
Negotiations also got underway on other cooperation projects in the areas of malaria treatment and malnutrition. Mozambique was one of the stops on the Brazilian Chancellor’s visit to Africa.
The Brazilian Agricultural Research Enterprise (Embrapa) will back rural development in Mozambique’s Zambezi River Valley, where Brazil’s Vale do Rio Doce Campany received permission to mine coal.
The cooperation agreement was mentioned by the recently elected president, Armando Emílio Guebuza, during his meeting in Maputo, the country’s capital, with the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim.
Amorim traveled to Mozambique to discuss Brazilian projects with Guebuza’s government. At the meeting, the Mozambican Minister of Foreign Relations, Alcinda Abreu, reinforced the government’s intention of providing continuity to bilateral relations with Brazil.
According to her, the government that just took office faces the domestic task of executing reforms in the public sector and combatting bureaucracy and corruption. The aim on the foreign front is to deepen and consolidate multilateral agreements.
Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brasil