Ask many Mozambicans about the state of their country’s development, and they will draw parallels to Vietnam. In the past half century, both countries have been through a prolonged and messy period of decolonisation, a devastating civil war and harsh communist rule. Both of their economies remain dominated by agriculture, but are opening up to the rest of the world, and diversifying into industry and resource extraction. Both have recorded impressive gross domestic product (GDP) growth in recent years.
The similarities are not endless, however. Vietnam is considerably further down the development road. It has five times Mozambique’s population, and in GDP terms outstrips it by 10 to one. It also has a far smaller share of its population living in absolute poverty. Mozambicans are confident of catching up, though, helped in part by a sturdy financial system.