To lift its citizenry from poverty, Mozambique must grow quickly and sustain that growth over a number of years. At present, however, the internal market is too small and the purchasing power of Mozambican consumers too low to expand production at the rate required to achieve such growth. Improvement in national welfare will instead depend on export growth.

The challenge: develop a strategy that will help Mozambique achieve export growth while ensuring that such growth provides economic opportunities and income to the poor. The position of this report is that trade must become an integral part of Mozambique’s strategy to stimulate sustained growth and to reduce poverty.