Hanoi (VNA) – The Government of Vietnam welcomesand will facilitate the cooperation between Vietnamese and Japanese businessesin Mozambique to help with local development, a diplomat has said.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Mozambique Le Huy Hoangmade the remark at a seminar in Maputo on October 9 that discussed ways tobolster economic and investment partnerships between Vietnamese and Japanesefirms in the African nation.

The event was attended by representatives of theJapanese bio energy firm NBF, the Japanese-invested agricultural developmentcompany in Mozambique ADM, Movitel – a telecom joint venture of Vietnam’smilitary-run telecom group Viettel in Mozambique, and many other Vietnamesebusinesses.

Hoang congratulated Movitel and ADM – twoleading Vietnamese and Japanese firms in Mozambique – on their recentsuccessful partnership and being chosen by the World Bank to carry out three ofthe six components of a project on improving the life quality and financialaccess for the poor in remote areas of Mozambique.

He added the Vietnamese and Japanese governmentshave been encouraging cooperation between businesses and relevant agencies oftheir countries to assist Mozambique to promote socio-economic development.

The diplomat also briefed participants about thesuccess stories and cooperation experience of Vietnam and Japan in Mozambique,including the collaboration between Vietnam and the Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA) in implementing a trilateral project to helpMozambican people improve rice productivity.

Tasuku Futamura, a representative of ADM, andKoji Hanawa, First Secretary in charge of economic affairs at the JapaneseEmbassy in Mozambique, gave more details about the ADM-Movitel partnership incarrying out the WB project. They spoke highly of Movitel’s capacity andstrength, expressing their hope for more support from the two governments forthe project implementation.

Movitel and ADM have been carrying out the firstcomponent of the WB project in Nampula province since July 2018. The firstphase, scheduled to last for three years, aims to provide financial transactionservices for 100,000 local low-income households with over 1 million USDtransacted each month./.