Tete, Mozambique, Aug. 18, 2025 (Lusa) - The president of Mozambique, Daniel Chapo, on Monday called on the country's entrepreneurs to invest in national arts and culture, arguing that it is an important economic asset for national development.
"We use this space to launch an invitation: look at culture as a strategic opportunity. Sponsoring a national festival like this one, supporting a theatre group, whether in the village, in the town, in an administrative post, in the district, in a province or in the country's capital, is investing," said the president.
The Mozambican head of state was speaking in Tete province, in the centre of the country, during the opening of the 12th edition of the National Culture Festival, which runs until 22 August under the slogan "50 Years Consolidating National Unity and Peace through Culture".
On the occasion, Chapo said that the country has legal mechanisms in place to encourage investment in the arts and culture sector through the cultural industry, noting that investing in a cultural centre or artistic product is also a way of "contributing to a more stable, creative, united country, more at peace and with more identity".
In the same statements, the President appealed to the makers of arts and culture to keep this field of activity a "fertile ground for mutual respect and harmonious coexistence among the Mozambican people", asking young people for concrete actions in this process.
"Mozambican youth are no longer just consumers of culture, they are also active producers through urban music, digital literature, independent cinema, the visual arts, young people are rewriting our history and identity with new languages and new codes," said Daniel Chapo, asking young people to use technology to promote Mozambican culture.
"Use the tools of your time: social networks, technologies, videos, and design to promote what is ours. Let innovation not erase decentralisation, but be inspired by it. Let every click on a phone, be it Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, be a sharing, let every piece of content be an act of identity for our culture, our unity, our peace, dialogue between Mozambicans and, above all, the love for the Mozambican nation that must result from the patriotism of the youth," he appealed.
Around 1,200 arts and culture makers are taking part in the 12th edition of the National Culture Festival, according to figures released today by the government.
PME/ADB // ADB.
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