Mozambique's Transport and Communications Minister Paulo Zucula said Sunday that local and foreign air companies are invited to fly in the country's air space.

Speaking to Xinhua on the phone, Zuluca said "there is nothing to hesitate. The air space has been liberalized. Come and fly."

The Mozambican air space was liberalized on Friday, the first time since independence in 1975 from Portugal.

The minister said, "We invite those interested to explore the national market."

Zucula said those who had been demanding for the free space can now operate freely.

He said he would like to encourage all local air companies to feel free to participate in the national economic development in general, and in tourism in particular.

The Mozambican Federation of Economic Associations (CTA) complained at a meeting last June with former Prime Minister Aires Ali that there was a lot of complicated procedures for obtaining licenses to operate in the country's air space.

One of the terrible problem is the time between the day a businessman submits his or her applications to obtain the license.

The CTA called for speedy procedures so that air companies that want to operate can do the job as quickly as possible.

For someone to operate in the country's space he has to get a permission not only from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, through the National Civil Aviation Institute (IACM), but also from the Defense Ministry.

LAM chairman of the board of directors Teodoro Waty said that 13 local air transport companies have got licenses to operate in the country. Most of them operate in a chartered manner from the South African city of Johannesburg to Mozambican tourist resorts, mainly to Bazaruto archipelago, in the southern province of Inhambane, and to the Quirimbas, in the northern Cabo Delgado province.