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AIM (Agencia Informação Moçambique)

According to a press release issued on Friday by the Danish embassy in Maputo, the amount covers technical assistance, support for environmental projects, and support for the development of the private sector in a business-to-business programme.

The pledge was made during a three-day visit to Maputo by a Danish delegation for the annual consultations between the Mozambican and Danish governments, aimed at assessing progress in bilateral cooperation.

The two governments have a strategy under which cooperation is concentrated on agriculture, education and energy supply, added the release. "Furthermore, Mozambique receives general budget support and support for democratic institutions such as the parliament and legal system".

"A major objective of Danish aid is to promote equal opportunities for women and men in all parts of society", said the release, adding that the greater part of the aid is to fund projects in the central provinces of Tete, Manica and Zambezia, and the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

The Danish government is cited as saying that it "remains impressed with the macroeconomic performance and the endeavours of the government of Mozambique to balance the economy with a view to achieving further debt relief under the so-called HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) II. Further debt relief will enable the country to allocate more funds to social sectors and intensify the fight against poverty".

But the Danish delegation expressed concerns over the mismanagement of funds, and urged the Mozambican government to take corrective measures. The release gave no details.

AIM attempted to ascertain how much money the Danes believed had been mismanaged, only to find that the Danish embassy is closed on Friday afternoons.

On the thorny issue of disposing of obsolete pesticides, the release added that the delegations agreed on a strategy to safely export, for treatment abroad, the 900 tonnes of pesticides collected.

Obsolete pesticides accumulated over two to three decades were to be burnt in the furnaces of the cement company in the southern city of Matola, under a project funded by Denmark. But environmentalists and local residents staged a successful campaign against this, which culminated in the announcement that the pesticides will be re-exported.

it was in this light that the delegations also reviewed the import, storage and handling of pesticides, and agreed on initiatives to promote international negotiations on persistent organic pollutants.