Yes. It means that, in central Africa, the regional organisation is the one that leads, and we show up when we are asked. We follow the course of events in the Central African Republic, Mali and Guinea-Bissau. Wherever there is a hotspot in Africa, we follow it closely and are available to help by all means in the region, on the continent, in the African Union or even in the UN. We have very much been involved.
Our industry is developing, but more slowly than we would like. With developments in human capital formation and infrastructure, though, we are getting there. Our ambition is to have an agri-industry. Agribusiness is developing rapidly, but we are not happy yet. There have been positive developments, mostly at a higher level in the sector. Development depends a great deal on the economic basis. We need to empower people in rural areas, where the overwhelming majority live. In the past ten years, the Government has introduced two basic programmes. First, approximately $300,000 is provided per year per district to finance local initiatives. This is paying off, in that things are happening. There is a problem with the repayment of those loans, but that has not led us to give up, as the impacts on production, productivity, management skills and so on are very positive. Second, a slightly larger amount of money is provided per district to address infrastructural issues such as road maintenance and well boring. Small needs that belong to the infrastructure component can also be financed locally. This is the basis of our work and, in five to ten years, it will pay off even more powerfully because we are addressing two issues, those being production and productivity.
As to what extent peace will prevail, we Mozambicans are generally good learners. The destabilising war that lasted for 16 years was a hard, sad and tough lesson for us. This is why every segment of Mozambique is involved in bringing it back fully - the churches, civil society, parties, the Government and our friends abroad. By asking the question, the committee has shown its concern, and this is an additional source of encouragement for us. The answer is that, yes, peace will prevail.
We must take into account the fact that Mozambique has a newborn democracy and is a new country, in that a country is only considered mature if it is more than 100 years old. We are not even 50 years old. Our multi-party democracy is even younger. We are all going through the learning curve. Obviously, as in a classroom, some go quickly through the learning process and others go more slowly. This is what is happening. We are not learning at the same pace and never will, but we will reach a level at which we can at least realise one thing, namely, that democracy has nothing to do with violence. Rather, it is a tool to make one's point. We are getting there. Fortunately, we will have elections in October. These will clarify many matters. We have a new electoral commission, which is trusted by everyone because every party in the Parliament is represented on it. We are all committed to holding good, credible elections to eliminate a certain perception that I will address when answering another question in a few minutes.
We are striving in terms of the business environment and are achieving good results. Tomorrow, there will be a business seminar where a great deal of information will be provided. We might be able to share with the Houses the representations that will be made at that seminar, so I will not use much of the committee's time addressing that issue.
As to the question of growth versus poverty, I am glad that members are impressed with the growth of the Mozambican economy, but please bear in mind that we started from a very low base. We need many years of this kind of growth to overcome poverty, or at least its shocking aspects.
Again, to encourage ourselves, let us look to the trend. The trend is fairly positive. One has growth of the economy and the population. Moving around the country, those who have been in Mozambique, particularly NGOs, can testify as to what they saw 15 to 20 years ago and what they see now. There has been a clear change. One of the debates at home is on the distribution of wealth, feeding the budget properly and encouraging people to continue to be participative in discussing priorities for each part of the country in the national context.
Of the population, 8% is involved in agriculture. There is a low level of education and technology. Seed quality is also low and there are problems with infrastructure, in particular roads to deliver goods to markets. I agree that we have a quality problem in respect of education. We are not yet at the level of competing with neighbouring countries, most of which have always been stable. They have not faced war. The comparison should not be with South Africa but with Angola which had a war as we did. Such a comparison would be relatively fair. We all know what South Africa is. However, we are competing with ourselves to develop and progress all the time. We are not happy with our situation and try to ensure that year after year it improves. A few years ago, we tried to ensure that the maximum number of children had access to school. The economy could not support that but the political will and determination was there to achieve it. As the economic situation progresses and the fight continues to change mentalities to make everyone believe in and commit to improvements in education, the results will appear. We are well aware of this and are fighting hard to reverse the situation.
I was asked how I see the situation in Mozambique given that we have received a great deal of aid, the elections held so far have had problems and donors are putting pressure on us. Pressure from donors used to be stronger. It is no longer that strong as we are no longer very dependent. We continue to be dependent but to a lesser extent than in the past. When I was Deputy Minister for Co-operation, I was also co-ordinator for the emergency programme. We were still at war. My predecessor is here. He was Deputy Minister for Agriculture and the co-ordinator and when I was appointed I took over from him. We were fully dependent on foreign aid. When we reached peace, the dependence was still very high and we could hardly take our own decisions even on issues having to do with our sovereignty.
The de-mining programme is my responsibility as Minister with responsibility for foreign trade, which does not make sense. De-mining is a matter for defence. We were in a confidence building process, however, and while the Government thought it was not necessary, the donors - at that time they were donors and not co-operating partners as we call them today - imposed on us the condition that de-mining be in Foreign Affairs. We had to accept.
NGOs are foreign organisations and they are supposed to be registered and controlled by the Minister for Justice. However, as the Minister for Justice was far from the donors, responsibility for NGOs was given to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The third component has to do with immigrants. That is by nature a matter for the Ministry with responsibility for the interior. However, for the same reason, it is with the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Fortunately, we concluded in the Ministry last year a functional analysis which was carried out through outsourcing. Now that we are no longer as dependent as we have been in the past, we have taken the decision that de-mining will go to the Ministry of Defence by the end of the year. Responsibility for NGOs is in the process of being transferred to the Minister for Justice and immigration matters are about to be transferred to the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is not enough to have legitimacy, one must have the power to impose that legitimacy, which takes time. Nevertheless, it was useful and it will continue to be useful to interact. We believe in a world of interdependence and that is what we are striving for.
Elections have never been perfect. We have attempted from one election to the next to improve, which is why our electoral law is far from being stable. Before almost every election, it is subject to revision to incorporate contributions from national and international organisations, including the constitutional court, domestic entities and other observers, particularly the European Union, which has been very proactive in making contributions. Most of those have been incorporated in our electoral law.
We have challenges but we know where to go and how to get there. Simply put, things take time. We will have a resident embassy as soon as possible. Our friends understand us very well and multi-party accreditation is a powerful tool for countries as poor as Mozambique. I thank the committee very much.