The President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, on Wednesday admitted the possibility of Mozambique following the example set by his Indonesian counterpart and banning the export of some minerals, forcing them to be processed locally.

The Mozambican head of state said that Joko Widodo "is a very visionary president, who in a very short time has managed to revolutionize his country and evolve, and be part of the five economies in the region where the country is located," saying that this is one of the experiences that Mozambique can learn from Indonesia.

"It's an experience that should be capitalized on. Naturally, it takes time to create these bases, but with a little more courage it can be done, and done very well. And we have products, not just minerals, but others, that could start to be banned from being exported, so that they can be made here in Mozambique," said Filipe Nyusi, speaking at the Presidency of the Republic, together with his Indonesian counterpart, Joko Widodo, whom he received in Maputo.

Nyusi stressed that "Joko Widodo in his country has banned the export of nickel, bauxite and copper. It can't be exported, there's no one who can dig it up and export it. You dig it up, you process it. And I asked him how many companies he had managed to set up there. He told me that more than 48 new companies were set up, industries, so as to be able to process these products and at the same time provide employment for many people."

According to Lusa, the two heads of state met on Wednesday morning at the Presidency of the Republic, as part of the visit by Joko Widodo, the first President of the Republic of Indonesia to visit Mozambique, and then attended the signing between the two governments of a memorandum of understanding on the control of medicines and biological products, involving the respective regulatory authorities, as well as a letter of intent on cooperation in the field of defense.

"We've decided that we're going to create a joint force, a 'task force', which will work from now on in concrete areas, above all what our brothers know how to do and what we know or have that we can do together," Filipe Nyusi also announced.

This working group will explore areas such as industrialization, gas exploration and distribution, fisheries and even medical testing, with Mozambican cotton being exported to Indonesia for this purpose.

In his speech, Joko Widodo pointed out that Mozambique is Indonesia's "first partner" in Africa, whose trade continues to grow, and defended the need to "optimize" the "preferential" agreement that already exists between the two countries.

On the table, he said, is the possibility of Indonesia selling locomotives to Mozambique, but Joko Widodo also said that the two countries would work on a reciprocal investment protection agreement.

The Indonesian President arrived in Maputo on Tuesday for a two-day working visit.