Maputo — Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Tuesday said that culture and tourism are true factors for economic development and the promotion of peace.
Speaking in Maputo, at the opening of a two day Culture and Tourism Congress, Nyusi described these two areas as pillars of social and human development. There were sectors, he said, where interests and investments converge that contribute to development and to the maintenance of peace and brotherhood.
He believed that culture and tourism were factors of development through protecting and valuing the country’s cultural heritage, and maximising its potential as a tourist destination.
“We are convinced that culture and tourism also play a key role in the promotion of peace and of bringing peoples together”, Nyusi added.
The Congress, he believed, was a space for discussion, the production of scientific knowledge and the debate of ideas, and as such it opens possibilities for the government to seek consensus in the definition of public policies and drawing up strategies for the culture and tourism sector.
“The debate on themes linked to culture and tourism in our universities will help the government advance to more structured and scientific knowledge, based on studies and evidence”, said Nyusi. “The government is guided by scientific production so that the policies drawn up have a foundation which guarantees that we are on the right path”.
The congress results from a partnership between the Centre of Studies on Communication and Society, of the University of Minho in Portugal, and the Polytechnic University of Mozambique, with the collaboration of the Mozambican Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
