President Armando Guebuza has stated that establishing a "United States of Africa", and hence an all-Africa government, should be a gradual process, and that the member countries of the African Union (AU) should not rush into such a project. The President told reporters in Addis Ababa, where he attended the AU summit, that there is still a large gap between today's African Union and the projected United States of Africa.

The President’s position is shared by the entire SADC (Southern African Development Community) region. It is in sharp contrast to the position of the outgoing AU chairperson, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi.

At this summit, Gaddaffi saw his attempts to extend his term of office frustrated. The summit insisted on the principle that the chairmanship rotates annually between the regions that make up the continent. In 2010 it is southern Africa's turn to chair the AU, and SADC unanimously backed the candidature of Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika.

On 31 January, Gaddaffi told reporters that "I am disappointed, and all the African people are disappointed, because the AU failed to establish institutions to realise the unity of Africa. There has been no notable achievement since the establishment of AU. I can't see real concrete and tangible results".

Those such as Mozambique, who favour gradual moves towards continental unity, argue that the regional blocs (SADC or ECOWAS, for example) must be consolidated first and that rushing into continental unity prematurely would be a recipe for failure.

ICT key to development
President Guebuza on 31 January said that Mozambique possesses all the conditions to make progress in information and communication technologies (ICTs), which he regarded as a key instrument for development.

Speaking to reporters in Addis Ababa,, President Guebuza stressed that in the near future many more Mozambicans than at present will be making use of information technologies.

Later in the day, President Guebuza spoke at a summit session devoted to the question of ICTs, and pointed to the Mozambican government’s drive to expand and modernise the telecommunications infrastructure with the use of fibre optics in the communications between Maputo and all provincial capitals, and the inter-connection of the national and regional fibre optic networks.

He stressed that the government is committed to guaranteeing that ordinary citizens can gain access to ICTs. Thus the government’s recent decision to introduce a third mobile phone operator “seeks to improve the current environment of competition in the sector, which will in turn contribute to increased telephone penetration, improved quality and diversity of telecommunication services, and to reducing their costs so that they become more accessible to the poorer strata of our society”.

President Guebuza spoke of the role of the ICTs in electronic governance, and declared “we have been establishing communication and information systems directed at the fight against corruption, and to improve the availability of information of public interest”.

He said that currently more than 150 state institutions are linked through the government’s electronic network. This covers central and provincial institutions, and the network is now being extended to the districts

“The ICTs will allow our public institutions to carry out effective actions against red tape and corruption, to promote the good image of our country, and to improve the business environment and national competitiveness”, stated President Guebuza.