TOTAL SUPPORTS BUSINESS SUPPORT AND ORIENTATION CENTER IN CABO DELGADO

The Total-led Mozambique LNG Project disbursed around US $ 200 thousand to support the rehabilitation and resourcing of Centro de Apoio e Orientação ao Empresário de Pemba (Business Support and Orientation Center of Pemba) with computer equipment and office supplies.

The support for the Centro de Apoio e Orientação ao Empresário (COrE) results from the existing memorandum of understanding between the Project and the Institute for the Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (IPEME) that foresees the use of COrEs in Maputo and in Pemba for information, training and assistance to small and medium-sized Mozambican companies.

The now rehabilitated COrE was inaugurated today by the Governor of Cabo Delgado, Valige Tauabo, who declared: "we inaugurate this space thinking in a structural and long-term transformation in our production system, led by our creative and resilient SMEs, with the support of all Cabo Delgado partners and friends towards mass certification. We reiterate our trust in the attention of Total and partners in realizing opportunities for local SMEs". According to Tauabo, Total has been demonstrating "a firm commitment to the SMEs in Cabo Delgado".

The Deputy Director of IPEME, José Libombo, said that CoRE is "a platform for providing information, training and assistance to small and medium-sized Mozambican enterprises". Libombo also stated that the rehabilitation and modernization of CoRE is part of the joint work that IPEME and Total have carried out and that includes other activities, such as the pilot certification program, which currently covers 40 Mozambican SMEs, 20 in Maputo and 20 in Cabo Delgado, as well as seminars on health, safety and environment at work and on business opportunities.

In his turn, the Total’s Country Chair and vice President for Mozambique LNG Project, Ronan Bescond, stated: "As a major energy operator, it is our responsibility to contribute to the development of our host countries, particularly in the regions where our sites are located. We have made shared development an integral part of our business model. It is a principle that reinforces our local integration, contributing in a sustainable way to the socio-economic development of our host regions".

Bescond added that "maximizing the participation of local content in our project is of crucial importance. It is part of our economic model and responds to the priorities stated by the Government of Mozambique and other stakeholders. We hope, through COrE and other ongoing actions, to contribute to the development of Mozambican companies in order to increase their competitiveness to access the opportunities offered by our project."

The Project expects to award contracts of up to $2.5 billion to Mozambican owned or registered companies over construction period. This represents more than one third of the total onshore contract, with the bulk of the rest being spent on highly specialized, technical goods and services that cannot currently be sourced in Mozambique.