Maputo, Nov. 21, 2025 (Lusa) - A private group plans to invest $150 million (€130 million) to build a luxury tourist resort in Inhambane, southern Mozambique, which will include a marina and create 600 jobs, the government announced on Friday.
According to government spokesman Inocêncio Impissa, to implement the Pérola de Moçambique project in Vilanculos, in that province, considered the tourist capital of the country, The Firm of Strategic Investments group signed a memorandum of understanding to that effect this month with the Mozambique Investment and Export Promotion Agency (APIEX).
"An integrated tourist resort that includes a marina, a world-class ecological reserve, with an initial investment of around $150 million, located in Vilanculos, Inhambane province, with the creation of 600 direct jobs for Mozambican citizens," Impissa said today at the weekly meeting with journalists.
The memorandum of understanding was signed in Inhambane during the international tourism conference on 3 and 4 November, with Impissa emphasising that at the event "investments totalling $252 million (€218.5 million) of investors' own capital were announced for the province of Inhambane", to be invested "within five years".
"This will contribute significantly to increasing the luxury tourism offer, creating direct and indirect jobs and investing in local content," the government spokesperson added.
The second project mentioned by the same source refers to the initiative by South Africans Singita, who intend to invest $102 million (€87.7 million) in a luxury tourism project with 60 beds on the island of Santa Carolina, also in Inhambane.
"The Singita group will invest $102 million in the development of the tourism project on Santa Carolina Island, in a public-private partnership with the National Tourism Institute [Inatur], which holds the concession for the island's tourism exploitation and development," the head of the South African group previously told Lusa.
According to Richard Baulene, the state will not invest any money in the island, located in the province of Inhambane. Still, it will only enter into a partnership with the concession to operate the venture for 25 years.
In Singita's project proposal (meaning “place of miracles” in the national language Changana), to which Lusa had access, the group indicates that it will invest $60 million (€51.6 million) to develop a 60-bed resort on that island, in addition to $42 million (€36 million) in additional projects in the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, which is located next to that natural area.
The investment will be "from own capital" to be completed in five years, "contributing to an increase in luxury tourism in that province in the order of 145 beds and creating 240 direct jobs and 260 indirect jobs," the document also states.
The group presents a proposal, described as "duly framed for high-yield ecological and sustainable tourism projects", with a concept that integrates the surrounding region and "enhances" existing natural features, and a plan to develop programmes to restore coral reefs, mangroves and statues.
The group also plans to create a Marine Research Centre in Vilankulos, a city in the same province, enabling the financing of community initiatives for conservation, monitoring, marine research, environmental education and awareness, and the development of investment projects, "increasing local jobs and stimulating the development of other tourism and similar activities by local communities."
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
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