Mozambican parties lack the preparation to formulate policies for the extractive industry, a deficiency that could undermine the defence of the country’s interests, the executive director of the Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IDM) said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Lusa on the fringes of the “Participation of Political Parties and Parliament in the Development of the Extractive Industry” conference, the IDM’s Hermenegildo Munjovo said that the insufficient capacity of Mozambican political institutions in the debate on the extractive industry was resulting in the importation of other countries’ policies and laws of that were not adapted to the Mozambican reality.

“I must say that [the preparation of political institutions] is still very poor, and we feel that political parties and parliament can do even more,” the executive director of IDM, a Mozambican non-governmental organization, said.

The Assembly of the Republic, Munjovo continued, should be able to exercise its role both as legislator and inspector competently in order to ensure that natural resources were used for the well-being of all Mozambicans.

“The extractive industry sector has grown considerably in recent years, and so have expectations over what their contribution to the country’s development should be,” he added.

Eduardo Alexandre, an adviser to the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, pointed to the capacity building of institutions as one of the challenges in the management of natural resources in the country, noting that the country was still at an embryonic stage in the matter.

“We still do not have the necessary experience in the management of natural resources. We still face the challenge of building our natural resources, to create internal capacity,” he said.

A comprehensive geological assessment of Mozambique’s full potential in natural resources is also another challenge facing the country, he added. (Source: Lusa)