The availability of inexpensive, extensive, safe transportation is essential to the conduct of commerce.  Encouragement of public transit is a boon to retail businesses and to the work force of industry.  Transportation is equally critical to the wholesale sector.  Transportation is central to tourists’ ability to realize their goals of travel and sightseeing.

Collective transportation is less expensive and less polluting than the use of individual conveyances.  Collective public transportation is a deserving recipient of government subsidies.  Urban bus transportation should offer improved reliability and frequency, without significantly increasing fares.  Fares should be fixed in even increments.  For example, charging 200 MT instead of the current 190 MT relieves bus drivers of the need to supply passengers with change.  Consequently the boarding process is made safer and more rapid.

Collective public transportation is rational for additional reasons.  It provides an informal setting for interaction among people and thereby teaches social restraint, diplomacy, and order.  It allows foreigners and nationals alike to meet and know one another.  A viable transportation network promotes mobility and a sense of liberty among the populace.  Public transportation reduces traffic congestion and vehicular accidents.  Its low cost reduces expenses associated with the cost of living.

An increased number of metered taxis is needed to meet the demand.  Their operation should be loosely regulated by the government and acutely responsive to the demands for service.  Fixed fares set by the government office of communication and transport should be freely advertised to the public.  The possibility of fixed-route systems could be explored.  Negotiated fares are advantageous to the local citizenry; standardized, fixed fares offer advantages to foreign visitors and persons not able to speak Portuguese.  Both arrangements can operate concurrently.

The introduction of moto-taxis, which are simply motorcycles whose owners offer rides at negotiated prices, is feasible in the climate that Moçambique enjoys.  A similar system has been effective in meeting the transportation needs of cities in the Dominican Republic.  Moto-taxis supply convenient transportation to areas not served by buses.  Their rates are lower than those of taxis and therefore are affordable to members of most socioeconomic classes.  The income earned by the drivers rewards the employment of individual ownership and initiative in the provision of essential public services.

Within the limits set by the nation's laws, private initiative in the areas of transportation, lodging, and food production should be unfettered.  When the citizens are free to supply the demand for needed and desired commodities, the government is relieved of the unreasonable burden of sponsoring the majority of basic services.
 
 

Reports on consultations in other areas:
1.    Steps to stimulate and reward excellence
2.    Immigration policies
3.    Transportation
4.    Tourism: Stable source of economic, cultural, and political enrichment
5.    Education and the welfare of children
6.    Stimulating the production of key agricultural products
7.    Export strategies
8.    Rational tax and tariff structures
9.    Appeal to donated (and handy) resources
10.  Managing corruption in government personnel and services
11.  Political decision-making for long-range progress