WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2005-06-21 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
A group of Chinese businessmen, headed by casino magnate Stanley Ho, are interested in buying shares in HCB, the company that operates the Cahora Bassa dam, in the western Mozambican province of Tete, according to reports in the Portuguese press.
The Chinese group has already approached the Mozambican and Portuguese governments, and is now awaiting the outcome of the latest negotiations between the two governments on the transfer of a majority holding in HCB to Mozambique, and how to deal with HCB”s debt (put at 1.8 billion US dollars) to the Portuguese treasury.
The anonymous sources (doubtless Portuguese government officials) cited in the Lisbon press, say that if agreement is reached between the Mozambican and Portuguese governments, that will probably also lead to Portugal selling off part of its holding. It is this share that Stanley Ho and his group are said to be interested in buying. Among the go-betweens supposedly used by the Chinese is the former chairperson of the Portuguese parliament, Almeida Santos.
The Chinese have made it clear, the reports claim, that they are interested in investing, not only in HCB, but also in developing the riches of the entire Zambezi Valley.
“The Chinese companies want to invest in that region, both in agriculture, and in exploiting coal for producing energy in thermal power stations. This is in addition to their interest in hydropower”, the anonymous sources said. “The Chinese have already understood very well how much wealth that valley has, with three million hectares that can be irrigated”.
Sergio Vieira, the director of the Mozambican government”s Zambezi Planning Office (GPZ), told AIM on Monday he was aware of these contacts. “There are respectable people who have spoken with the GPZ, with me personally, and with members of the government about this”, he said. “The Chinese investors themselves have not contacted us”.
Vieira added that he knew through the media of the contacts made between this group and the Portuguese government.
The reference to coal seems to indicate that the Chinese investors and/or the anonymous sources used by the Lisbon press are unaware that the Mozambican government has already awarded the concession on the huge coal deposits in the Tete district of Moatize to the Brazilian mining giant, the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD). The use of Moatize coal for a thermal power station figures among the CVRD plans.
HCB is currently 82 per cent owned by the Portuguese state, with the Mozambican state owning the remaining 18 per cent. Talks on the future of HCB resumed in Lisbon last week, between delegations headed by Mozambique”s Minister of Energy, Salvador Namburete, and the Portuguese Finance Minister, Luis Campos e Cunha.
Source: AllAfrica.Com
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200506200992.htm…/p>