Press encounter (unofficial transcript)

I am delighted to have had the opportunity to come here finally to see for myself the progress you have made in the last decade. You have gone through difficulties - it was only two years ago when you had to grapple with the massive floods and yet you have been able to pick up the pieces and continue rebuilding and continue the development of your country.

You have attained the level of economic growth that is the envy of the people on this continent. You are determined to lift your people out of poverty, and above all, the democratic government is taken hold and we applaud your leadership and the efforts made by this country to build a stable, peaceful and prosperous society.

I have also had the chance this afternoon to talk with the President about developments in other parts of the continent as well as to discuss UN issues that of interest to both the UN and Mozambique and to thank the President for the constant support Mozambique has given to the UN. Yes, we have supported you, but it has been a two-way traffic. You have always been actively engaged in UN activities at the UN Headquarters and elsewhere. You have, where possible, given us very good people to work with us in some of our operations, like in East Timor.

I look forward, when I go to South Africa, to working with the President and the other leaders to have a successful conference on sustainable development. I believe that if the leaders who meet in Johannesburg work hard on the issues of water, sanitation, health, education, biodiversity and energy, we may be able to get something out of the meeting. The meeting is going to succeed. Predictions by some in the Media that it would be a failure, but we are determined to succeed and we will succeed. We cannot afford to fail. I hope the message that we take out of South Africa, out of Johannesburg, will be a message of implementation. We have many plans, some very good ones. We walked away from Rio with fantastic results but implementation has been slow. Let's make this an era of implementation and implement on what we have agreed to, on what will protect this planet and sustain development.

Question on whether the two leaders discussed the situation in Zimbabwe:

A: I did raise the issue in two parts. First, the humanitarian situation where the UN works with international donors doing all it can to ensure that the 13 million people affected get the assistance they need and of course 6 million of them are in Zimbabwe. I also expressed my view to the President why land reform was necessary in Zimbabwe. I don't think the approach adopted by the government is the right one. We always believed, and the government knows my views ? that the best way to proceed with such a land reform should have a credible plan and move on with phased implementation and the plan that is based on the rule of law that would ensure a fair compensation, that would ensure that the interest of core farmers, of displaced farm workers and the commercial farmers are respected. If they adopted such an approach, I am sure we will be able to engage the international community and they will get the support they need for the implementation of a credible land reform.

Question on Mozambique's economic growth:

A. Despite the difficulties that you have lived through, you have been able to maintain consistently a high economic growth rate of development. Last year it was 13% and this year one hopes it will be about 12%. As an organization we have always maintained that if Africa is to lift itself out of poverty, it will require an annual economical growth of at least 7%. Measured against that statistics, I think you did very well here.

Question on UN agencies' work in Mozambique:

A. From what I have read and what I have seen on the ground since I have got here, I think the UN team is working effectively. They are working as a team and they are pulling their efforts together to have a greater impact in their attempts to work with the government to promote economic and social development. They are very happy with the cooperation they have received from the government and I hope that the government is happy with us, but that is up for the President to say.

Question on the most urgent need of the African countries:

A. I think that the search for peace and the desire for peace on behalf of the African peoples is the genuine one and I think that we should all work for that. Today with major conflicts on this continent, when you try to talk with investors and others about Africa, some see us as a continent in crisis which is not a healthy environment to invest in. When it comes to risk premium, we pay the same risk as perhaps those at war. So we all suffer and we all have to work to resolve the conflicts. We should clean up the environment to attract investors, both domestic and international, and to move on with social and economic development.

The other issue, which I found on the minds of many African leaders and ordinary people, is the question of HIV/AIDS which is an unimaginable epidemic that is destroying this continent. It makes it difficult for us to develop. It takes away some of the healthy young men and women who are in their primes and have a lot to contribute to society, leaving millions of orphans behind for grandmothers who are not employed to look after. It is a fight that we all have to get involved in, from the President down to the ordinary citizens. It is not something we should leave to government alone to do, or the president alone - we all have to become engaged.

We have to be sensitive to the needs of those affected. There should be no stigma or discrimination against them. The ones I find most courageous who are the heroes - they should be the heroes to all of us - are the ones who are infected and come forward and admit that they are, and also tell their partners that they are infected, so that they do not pass it on. And I think we should embrace these courageous people and do whatever we can to help them.

Now we are trying to make care available, treatment available. As difficult as it is, it is going to take time. More and more people will come forward, I hope, because until they are aware that we can do something for them, they are not encouraged to admit the infection, that they would be stigmatized, that they would be discriminated and nothing could be done for them. So this is also a major issue on our continent and is a problem for all of us.

Thank you very much.