The Resource Curse Debate after Mozambique's Emergence as an Energy Exporter

Abstract

Mozambique has long been considered one of the few resource-poor economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nowadays, however, Mozambique is experiencing a resource boom, one triggered by recent massive discoveries of energy resources and related increases in foreign investment in the country primarily in the coal, gas and hydropower industries. Mozambique is expected to soon become one of the world's top 10 coal producers and one of the top 20 producers of gas. This chapter shows that the recent discovery of energy resources, along with the increasing capacity of the hydropower sector, is changing the size and shape of the Mozambican economy, as well as Mozambique's relations with both traditional and new foreign partners. It examines possible economic and political impacts resulting from: the massive inflow of foreign capital, rent-seeking by the political lite, historical trajectories of weak statehood and dependency on foreign aid, and the push for liberalisation by international organisations that has been occurring since the 1980s.