16 December 2010
Please also see: Speech in Portuguese and Press Release
Your Highness the Aga Khan
Your Excellencies
The Minister of Tourism
The Members of the Council of Ministers
The Vice-Ministers
The Governor of the City of Maputo
The Chairman of Maputo Municipal Council
The Heads of Diplomatic and Consular Missions
The Representatives of Regional and International Organizations
The Representatives of the Entrepreneurial Community
Ladies and Gentlemen
We are before a work with an outstanding presence, a magnificent architecture and such comfortable interiors that we are all impressed and charmed. European in its conception, of African constitution and raised to enrich the landscape of this Pearl of the Indian Ocean and of the bay that is its veranda, the Polana Serena Hotel fills the imagination of its beholders and, deservingly and most proudly, claims for an outstanding place among the best hotels in Africa and among the most famous ones around the world.
Some 88 years after its first opening and some 20 months after the beginning of its restoration works, the Polana Serena starts a new phase of its history, ready to cope with the challenges of the dynamic, increasingly competitive and demanding Mozambican hotel industry.
We wish, therefore, to thank Your Highness the Aga Khan, the Serena Group, the management and workers of the Polana Serena Hotel, for this decision to carry out significant works in order to keep this property suitable for the most demanding guests who may visit this Pearl of the Indian Ocean.
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