The Export-Import Bank of Korea (www.koreaexim.go.kr, Chairman Lee Duk-hoon, “Korea Eximbank”) announced on May 27 that it signed a USD 124 million EDCF loan agreement with Mozambique to fund the country’s "Nampula-Nametil Road Construction Project" and "Maputo and Matola Sanitary Landfill Construction Project."

* The Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) was established by the Korean government in 1987 to promote economic exchanges with the developing world and to assist developing countries in achieving industrialization and economic stability through the provision of long-term, low-interest credit. Korea Eximbank currently manages the fund as its trustee.

Executive Director Yim Seong-hyeog of Korea Eximbank’s EDCF Operations Group met with Mozambique’s Finance Minister Manuel Chang and signed the loan agreement for the projects at the Ministry of Finance in Maputo, Mozambique on May 26.

The Nampula-Nametil Road Construction Project for which EDCF will lend USD 75.4 million involves upgrading the 67.5 km section of the road stretching from Nampula, located in the northeast of Mozambique, to Nametil in the south, into a two-lane road.

This road is a section of the 180 km north-south arterial road connecting Nampula, the third-largest city of Mozambique, to the southern port city of Angoche. The Nampula？Nametil section is currently unpaved that has been inaccessible to traffic on rainy days.

EDCF is also lending USD 48.6 million to the Maputo and Matola Sanitary Landfill Construction Project.

The project aims at constructing a sanitary landfill that can dispose of household waste generated from 2 million residents in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, and its neighboring city Matola.

Once completed, the landfill would dramatically improve public sanitation in the areas surrounding the country’s capital, as garbage that had been piling up in a dump located in the center of the city will instead be safely isolated from the environment.

Executive Director Yim remarked at the signing ceremony, “With activities booming in its gas development sector, Mozambique is emerging as the next big destination of foreign investment in Africa”. He added, “I hope this EDCF loan will not only facilitate the transfer of Korean technology to Mozambique but also the entry of Korean firms in the local market”.

Mozambique is a country in Southeast Africa bordered by Tanzania to the north, and Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa to the west.

It is deemed a high growth-potential country where foreign direct investment has surged in recent years to tap into the abundant natural resources such as aluminum and coal.

It has a land area 3.6 times that of the Korean Peninsula with a population of 25 million.