As two of the world’s fastest growing economies and driven by a wealth of natural resources, both Angola and Mozambique are booming, but not everyone is invited to the party. In a bid to protect the local players, foreign investors and lawyers face restrictions.

Angola has been a player in the global energy market since the 1970s. It is on track to produce 2 million barrels of oil a day by 2015 and in August it sent its third shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to South East Asia after the first two went to Brazil and China.

Fellow Lusophone country Mozambique has come later to its resources, having discovered a major offshore gas field in the Rovuma basin in 2011 to add to one of the world’s largest unexploited inland coal fields.

The gas is thought to be worth $350bn (£233bn), while projections are that from 2015 the country could produce 100 million tonnes of coal a year, putting it just outside the world’s top 10.

International interests

Clearly, the main source of work for lawyers, both local and foreign, is energy and natural resources, and the huge amount of infrastructure work needed to support their exploitation and transportation.

However, infrastructure work is not confined to these sectors. In Mozambique an international airport is being built, mainly funded by an $80m loan from the Brazilian development bank – part of a $300m credit line from the Brazilian government.

China Road and Bridge Corporation is building a ring road around the capital Maputo that will link the country’s main north-south highway to the Maputo-South Africa motorway. The Chinese government has been pledged $300m and is also funding a bridge spanning the bay at Maputo at a cost of $725m.

Read more at thelawyer.com