Revisiting Sino-Mozambican Cooperation: China’s Inroads into the Agriculture and Forestry Sectors

Abstract

Introduction Since Mozambique became an independent state in 1975, its development trajectory has been shaped by international and internal events (Alden, 2001:8). In the first decade after independence, the Government of Mozambique (GoM) implemented a Marxist-oriented programme, which did not produce the expected outcomes (Latham, 1981:69; Abrahamsson and Nilsson, 1995: 28-30). In addition, Mozambique‟s colonial past, governance inexperience, insufficient capital, poor infrastructure and unskilled population have limited the state‟s capacity to develop strong governmental institutions, a solid national economy, and a cohesive national identity. Also, the internal conflict started by the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) rebel movement against the Liberation Front of Mozambique government (Frelimo) lasted for sixteen years and destroyed much of the infrastructure left from the colonial period ( Hall and Young, 1997: 115-137).To support a declining economic, political and social structure, the government was left with no alternative but to turn to Western states and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) for support by the mid-1980s ( Manning, 2002: 55-6; Pitcher, 2002:103-114; Hanlon, 1991: 28-9; Hanlon, 1996: 16).The transition from a phase in which Mozambique had relative autonomy to one in which international organisations became deeply involved in the state‟s development has had innumerable implications (Ottaway, 1988: 222; Manning, 2002: 123-132).