The Facilitating State and the Ambition of the Mozambican Economic Miracle

Agostinho Vuma"

The great economic miracles of history rarely began with factories, roads, or megaprojects. They almost always began with a change in mindset. There came a moment when the political leaders of Japan, South Korea, Singapore, or, more recently, Rwanda, understood that development does not flourish where the state becomes a bureaucratic labyrinth, but rather where it assumes the role of a strategic partner of private enterprise and society.

It is in this context that the President of the Republic's statement takes on special significance: "The State should not be an obstacle, but rather a facilitator of economic development."

The phrase deserves to be read beyond its apparent simplicity. It represents, perhaps, one of the most important institutional challenges facing Mozambique since independence: the transformation of the state apparatus into an instrument at the service of wealth creation, competitiveness, and collective prosperity.

But this vision has gained an equally relevant complement in recent days. Speaking at the XXVI Annual Conference of the Private Sector (CASP), the Head of State issued a warning that transcends its immediate context and projects itself onto the very architecture of national development: “If you want to be a good referee, don’t play! You can’t play with the whistle in your mouth.”

More than just a happy phrase, this observation encapsulates a fundamental principle for building the modern state that Mozambique aspires to.

No economy thrives when those who set the rules of the game confuse their role as regulators with that of direct participants in economic competition. Sustainable growth requires impartial, predictable, and credible institutions capable of ensuring that merit, innovation, and private initiative flourish in an environment of trust and transparency.

Perhaps here lies one of the most important political messages of our time: the paradigm shift necessary for the realization of Mozambique's economic miracle is already beginning to be built and established at the highest levels of the State. The presidential vision points to a new relationship between public power, the private sector, and society, based not on the overlapping of roles, but on the clarity of each actor's responsibilities.

For decades, we have become accustomed to conceiving of the State primarily as a regulator, supervisor, and executor. These are undoubtedly indispensable functions. However, in a world marked by global competition, technological innovation, and the increasing mobility of capital, these functions alone are no longer sufficient. The country needs institutions capable of removing barriers, accelerating decisions, building trust, and stimulating entrepreneurship.

It is important to remember that none of the countries we admire today built their economic success by simply reducing the role of the state. On the contrary, Japan created a powerful link between government and industry; South Korea promoted active industrialization policies; Singapore transformed administrative efficiency into a true national brand; China made strategic planning an engine of growth; and Rwanda focused on a results-oriented public administration.

Everyone understood an essential truth: the problem lies not in the size of the State, but in the quality of its intervention.

Mozambique possesses extraordinary assets. It has a privileged geographical position, strategic logistics corridors, vast mineral and energy resources, extensive arable land, and a young and dynamic population. Yet, we continue to face an uncomfortable question: why does a country with so much potential take so long to transform potential wealth into effective prosperity?

The answer is not simple, but part of it inevitably lies in how institutions function.

Every license that takes months to be issued, every redundant administrative procedure, every conflict of jurisdiction between public entities, every contradictory interpretation of the law, and every bureaucratic obstacle represent invisible costs to the national economy. They are delayed investments, jobs not created, and wasted opportunities.

If we wish to build what I have called the “Mozambican Economic Miracle,” we must courageously embrace a new reform agenda. An agenda based on five fundamental pillars: administrative simplification, legal certainty, valuing human capital, modernizing infrastructure, and strengthening the partnership between the State, the private sector, and academia.

But there is an even deeper dimension to this reflection. The great economic miracles were not born solely from technical reforms; they were born from a collective conviction that the future could be different from the past. They required leadership, strategic vision, and a results-oriented public ethic.

Our generation is therefore called upon to understand that political independence, however important it may have been, will remain incomplete as long as it is not accompanied by true economic independence. And this independence will not be achieved merely by discovering new resources or implementing large investments. It will depend, above all, on our ability to build strong, impartial, and development-oriented institutions.

The President's words seem to point precisely in that direction: a State that facilitates instead of hindering; an arbiter that regulates without competing; institutions that create trust instead of uncertainty.

Perhaps this is the great national imperative of our time: to transform the ambition of the Mozambican economic miracle into a collective project, capable of mobilizing the State, the private sector, academia and the whole of society around a common cause — the construction of Mozambique's prosperity and economic independence.

2025/12/3