During their meeting Mr Matsuura recalled his participation in the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) summit held in Maputo in July 2000. He also expressed his satisfaction at the growing bilateral cooperation in many areas between Mozambique and UNESCO.

Mr Matsuura then thanked the President for his participation in the UNESCO High level Symposium “ Building Knowledge Societies – From Vision to action” held in Geneva, from 9-10 December 2003, where the Community Multimedia Centres Initiative in favour of Mozambique, Mali and Senegal was launched. The Director-General also stressed the importance of preserving both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

President Chissano paid tribute to UNESCO for its contribution to the development of Africa through the NEPAD initiative. As President of the African Union, he extended an invitation to the Director-General to attend the 2004 and 2005 Summits of the African Union to be held in Addis Ababa and Khartoum respectively. On bilateral cooperation, he expressed his appreciation for the Organization’s technical assistance in curriculum development, environment management through remote sensing, cultural heritage preservation and the reinsertion of youth in Mozambique.

In an address to Members of the Diplomatic corps on the subject of “Peace and Development in Africa”, he stressed that “for Mozambique, peace brought stability and progress” and allowed the country to move towards development. The President thanked UNESCO for its efforts in helping post conflict African countries and launched an appeal to the African Union and UNESCO to assist Africa in taking stock of its educational, cultural and scientific infrastructure destroyed by four decades of war, conflict and crisis. In particular he called on UNESCO to strengthen its action in favor of Education institutions in Africa, urgent attention to teacher training and curriculum development is needed he stated. He also welcomed the recently adopted Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The President of Mozambique was accompanied by Dr Leornardo Simão, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mrs Lidia Brito, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Mr Carlos Morgado, Minister of Industry and Mrs Fernanda Lichale, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Mozambique to UNESCO.