[e-drug] Brazil assists Mozambique

[Beverley Snell <bev@burnet.edu.au>]

E-drug: Brazil assists Mozambique
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Brazil assists Mozambique

[Source: Mozambique News Agency Reports No 282 September 3, 2004 Copied
as fair use]

Brazil cancels most of Mozambique's debt

Brazil announced on 31 August that it has decided to write off $314
million, representing 95 per cent of the $331 million that Mozambique
owes that country. The decision was formalised in one of the various
agreements and protocols signed between Brazilian President Luis Inacio
Lula da Silva and his Mozambican counterpart, Joaquim Chissano, who
arrived in Brasilia on 31 August for a four day official visit to
Brazil.

Speaking during the ceremony, President Lula said that more than simply
relieving Mozambique of this debt, his country wants, through this
gesture, to show that it is determined to help other countries, that are
poorer and facing greater needs than Brazil. He said that it makes no
sense at all that very rich nations  - most of whose wealth was
accumulated by exploiting other countries' resources  - insist on
collecting debts that have been proved definitely unpayable.

President Lula stressed that Brazil is in moral and material debt to
Mozambique and to Africa as a whole, because the Brazilian economy was
built on the labour of enslaved Africans. He said it was the millions of
slaves and the descendants of slaves who contributed to the development
of Brazil and other American countries,  "while 
Africa remained stagnant". He reiterated that Brazil will continue its
policy of supporting African countries, that was launched by his
government when it took office two years ago.

For his part, President Chissano thanked the gesture of the Brazilian
government, describing it as further proof that this country is
determined to move from promises to actions. He said that writing off
the Mozambican debt will allow the two countries to commit more efforts
in promoting bilateral cooperation and new 
socio-economic investments.

Brazil reaffirms commitment to pharmaceutical plant

During President Chissano's trip to Brazil, the Brazilian authorities
reaffirmed  their commitment to building a pharmaceutical plant in
Mozambique that will produce generic 
anti-retroviral drugs, used to prolong the lives of people suffering
from AIDS. When he visited Mozambique last November, Brazilian President
Luis Inacio Lula da Silva confirmed Brazil's interest in building this
factory.

However, in early August a news item carried by the Portuguese news
agency Lusa gave the impression that Brazil had torn up this pledge,
citing the Coordinator of AIDS Programmes in the Brazilian Health
Ministry, Pedro Chequer, as declaring "It's not worth building a factory
making anti-retrovirals in Mozambique, for it to become a white
elephant".

The story was then carried in much of the Mozambican media, much to the
surprise of Health Minister Francisco Songane, who said he had received
no information from the Brazilians that the agreement of 2003 was no
longer valid.

A joint communiqué on 31 August following discussions between President
Lula and President Chissano reiterates categorically that Brazil remains
committed to the pharmaceutical factory. and will do all in its power to
ensure that construction begins as soon as possible.

The two presidents stressed the promise to transfer Brazilian technology
in the area of producing anti-retroviral drugs to Mozambique, in
accordance with what had been agreed during Lula's visit to Maputo. They
regarded this commitment as something that would prove the practicality
of cooperation between countries of the south, and said it was their
intention to increase still further mutual assistance in areas where one
or other of their countries has a greater advantage.

The communiqué added that since Lula's visit, the two countries have
exchanged technical missions which "have dealt with the operational
aspects for the installation of laboratories for the production of
anti-retrovirals". Not only was Brazil determined to build the factory,
but it would also guarantee the training of the Mozambican staff who
would operate the plant.

The two presidents added that they would do all in their power to ensure
that more countries of the south became aware that, faced with the
continued refusal of the north to change the rules governing world
economics, only south-south cooperation could save developing countries.

They declared that "in the collective exercise of establishing a new
international development paradigm, the group of developing countries
should take on a preponderant  role in a real effort to promote
south-south solidarity and partnership".

For Chissano and Lula, the unequal terms of trade imposed by the
industrialised countries of the north have been the main cause
perpetuating the socio-economic backwardness of the so-called third
world. They warned that, without a mutually advantageous trading system,
it would be difficult to achieve progress and prosperity in 
developing countries.

The presidents argued that "incorporation of developing countries into
the global economy necessarily involves access, without discrimination,
to the markets of the rich 
countries". They noted the huge imbalances in international trade rules,
and stressed in particular the importance of the negotiations on
agriculture, since "this is a sector in which the countries of the south
enjoy greater competitiveness, but it is also where there are huge
distortions". To eliminate these distortions, Chissano and Lula urged
the G-20 group that has been leading the southern countries in
negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to do all they could
to defend the national interests of developing countries.

-- 

Beverley Snell
Centre for International Health
Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research & Public Health 
GPO Box 2284, Melbourne 3001 Australia
http://www.burnet.internationalhealth.edu.au

Telephone 613 9282 2115 / 9282 2275
Fax 61 3 9282 2144  or  9282 2100
Time zone: 10 hours ahead of GMT.
email <bev@burnet.edu.au>

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