Maputo, Mozambique, 15 Jul – The Mozambican government plans to sell the country’s oldest glass factory, which was abandoned 10 years ago by Portuguese company Barbosa & Almeida, state stakeholding company Instituto de Gestão das Participações do Estado (Igepe) said Wednesday in Maputo.

The chairman of Igepe, Hipólito Hamela, said that negotiations were underway with a Mozambican investor for the sale of Vidreira e Cristalaria de Moçambique for between US$4 and US$5 million.

Vidreira e Cristalaria de Moçambique, which is located in the Machava neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Maputo, during the colonial period and following independence in 1975, was a benchmark in glass production for packaging and kitchenware in Mozambique, until production came to a halt in the 1980s, at the height of the civil war.

In 1996, four years after the end of the civil war, the company was sold to Portuguese firm Barbosa & Almeida, which re-launched production but gave it up two years later, forcing the government to take on management of the company once again.

If it goes ahead, the re-launch of Vidreira e Cristalaria de Moçambique will occur after several years of delays, apparently due to several businesspeople giving up on it after showing interest in re-launching the company, whose facilities are in a poor state of repair. (macauhub)