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Sam Jones speaks at Africa Industrialization Day 2022 event

On 8 December, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Mozambique organized, in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC) and the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office (UN RCO) in Mozambique, a business breakfast to commemorate
Africa Industrialization Day 2022.

The event, entitled ‘Economic Diversification Through Sustainable Industrialization’, took place at Hotel Afrin, in Maputo, and gathered a wide audience consisting of relevant governmental institutions, industry owners, development professionals, and civil society. The guest of honor was His Excellency Silvino Augusto José Moreno, Minister of Industry and Commerce of Mozambique, who both opened and closed the event.

Sam Jones, UNU-WIDER Research Fellow and Resident Advisor in the Inclusive growth in Mozambique programme (IGM) based at the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) of Mozambique, was invited to speak at the event. In his intervention, Sam Jones mentioned some of the preliminary results of the Mozambican Manufacturing Enterprise Survey (IIM 2022) which has been recently carried out under the IGM programme and stressed the importance of giving more focus to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises when designing sustainable industrial policies in the country. Referring to an IGM paper on economic complexity and structural transformation in Mozambique (WIDER Working Paper 141/2020), he further highlighted the need to diversify and upgrade the economy.

The contribution of Sam Jones prompted a lively discussion on the priorities of the industrial policy in Mozambique, and in particular of the recently approved National Industrialization Programme of Mozambique (Programa Nacional Industrializar Moçambique, PRONAI).