The Central Regional Committee meeting of the Project of Economic Linkages for Diversification (PLED) took place yesterday in Tete City.
PLED is a project of the Mozambican Government, under the coordination of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), through the Zambezi Agency, with the support of the World Bank Group, with the objective of strengthening the performance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s) by facilitating economic linkages, valued at USD 100 million.
This initiative foresees to strengthen the performance of the national MSME’s focusing on the infrastructure sector, quality improvement programs and competence development programs, according to the Zambezi Agency General Director.
“It is a project that aims to empower small and medium enterprises so that they can take advantage of the opportunities that are generated by the megaprojects that exist in the central and northern regions.”
Roberto Albino referred that PLED foresees to capacitate at least 10,000 micro, small and medium enterprises.
“The process of capacity building of small and medium enterprises to integrate with the projects has three stages: capacity building in competence development; quality where skills are obtained and small investments for certification followed by the financing phase,” said Albino.
About financing the Director General of Zambezi Agency assured that “the project will launch the III window of the Catalytic Fund for Innovation and Demonstration (FCID) which will be the financing instrument (co-financed subsidy) for SMEs.
PLED covers the central and northern regions. And for some sector topics with national scope.
Participating in the Central Regional Committee of the Project of Economic Linkages for Diversification were representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Finance; representatives of the Governor and Secretary of State of Tete Province; the District Administrator, the presidents of the Provincial Business Councils (CEPs) of the Civil Society Organizations; the Provincial Governments and the Secretaries of State of the Provinces of Tete, Manica, Sofala and Zambézia; members of the Central Regional Committee; members of the Board of Directors of the Zambezi Agency; the PLED Coordination Unit, among others.