On Monday morning, Mozambican soldiers opened fire to disperse protesters calling for natural gas projects to be suspended until more pressing issues, particularly fundamentalist insurgents, are dealt with. Nonetheless, Mozambique seems determined to push ahead with LNG development, hopeful that the huge gas deposit discovered off its northern coast in 2010 could lift the country out of the ranks of the world’s poorest . It’s not only the protesters who are skeptical, however: analysts have raised fears that Maputo could be hit by the ‘resource curse’, in which newfound resource wealth brings increased hardship rather than economic growth. This fate, observed in numerous other emerging economies, is nevertheless not inevitable. Mozambique must learn from these countries’ mistakes and emulate those nations, such as Norway, Qatar and Botswana, which have used their oil and mineral reserves as a springboard for long-term sustainability. Green light for exploration despite ongoing troubles Mozambique’s […]