As you surely know, EDM is the Mozambican company with the noble and challenging mission of bringing electricity to all points of our Mozambique, the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, as President Guebuza usually says. It is, indeed, a rewarding mission of this institution, the development pillar of our country.

Over the 37 years of its creation, its commitment, concentration and resources have been in pursuing this national desideratum. As a result of this engagement, today, 126 district capitals, 235 administrative posts and several Cities, Towns and Villages are linked to the National Grid. The number of EDM customers with access to electricity in 1977 was about 42,000 and there are currently over 1,300,000 customers connected to a connection rate of about 130,000 customers a year.

Obviously, these indicators are smaller and we are not satisfied with them. Many million Mozambicans are still without electric power. The progress of Mozambique continues to be postponed many times because of the shortage of electricity. Therefore, we have challenges and permanent concerns.

We will continue to work increasingly harder in pursuing the objectives that have been targeted under the different guiding instruments in the fight against poverty that is waged today in Mozambique.

We are aware that the services we provide require an increasing improvement. Much we have been doing in this regard, from large investments in rehabilitation and strengthening of our networks, through increasingly proficient training of our workers, to the improvement and expansion of our infrastructure.

In the pursuit of this most noble mission of contributing to the development of our beautiful Mozambique, we would like to rely on our dear visitor - EDM customer or not - with suggestions, ideas, comments or complaints. This space can be a vehicle for interaction. We would hereby also like to receive ideas on how we can improve the work we do; criticism of what was not done properly. And because they affect us all, we would be happy to receive denunciations of theft or vandalism of electricity infrastructure, as well as corruption in any of our services.

EDM is not a company of those who work in it. It is for all Mozambicans and to that extent, all have their contribution.