Africa-Press – Angola. The Cooperation and Investment Facilitation Agreement (ACFI) between Angola and Brazil was, this week, at the table of the two countries, with representatives of the Government and the private sector addressing the opportunities and facilitation of investment in strategic sectors, with emphasis on for the areas of sustainable tourism and agriculture.
In a meeting in digital format, held on Thursday, the Brazil-Angola Cooperation and Facilitation Agreement (ACFI) Joint Committee discussed the aspects that regulate foreign exchange legislation, as well as measures for the facilitation of business visas and the dispute settlement mechanism and new agreements and investments in the areas of Sustainable Tourism and Agriculture.
With this ACFI meeting, Angola and Brazil prepare the way for the intense agenda of meetings and business missions and new agreements to be signed at the High Level Bilateral Commission this year.
The meeting was attended by members of the Government and business associations of both countries. The meeting is an important platform for institutional cooperation and facilitation of mutual investment flows.
The Brazilian delegation was made up of representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Brazilian Embassy in Angola, the Ministry of Economy, the Attorney General’s Office of the National Treasury and the ministries of Agriculture, INCRA, and Tourism, and representatives of the Central Bank, Lawyers’ Office. Union General and APEX-Brasil.
On the Angolan side, senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MIREX), Economy and Planning (MEP), Finance (Minfin), Agriculture and Fisheries and Culture, Tourism and Environment participated.
The active participation of entrepreneurs and private sector associations is seen as “essential” for overcoming obstacles to investment and for identifying new opportunities.
In particular, the ACFI meeting on Thursday, 3rd, had the special participation of the presidents of the Association of Brazilian Entrepreneurs in Angola (AEBRAN), Marcos Chaves, of the Angola Business Confederation (CEA), Francisco Viana, and of the Brazilian Association of the Hotel Industry (ABIH), Manuel Linhares.
At the meeting, the Ambassador of Brazil in Luanda, Rafael Vidal, highlighted the promising horizon for an intense agenda of business missions in 2022 and for the holding of the High Level Bilateral Commission meeting, next May, chaired by the foreign ministers. This will be the second high-level meeting in less than a year, since the official visit to Angola of the vice president of Brazil, Hamilton Mourão.
The ACFI Brasil-Angola was signed in 2015 and entered into force in 2017, being a pioneering instrument, as it was the first to enter into force in the new Brazilian model of investment agreements. The agreement seeks to meet, in a concrete, pragmatic and proactive way, the needs of investors.
New impetus
For this year, there are favorable conditions for the expansion of investments between the two countries, with a portfolio of around US$1.3 billion in new projects by Brazilian companies, with emphasis on the project to build the Cabinda Refinery.
Among the projects for the first phase, in addition to the refinery, are the construction of the port terminal at Barra do Dande, in Bengo province, in which a fuel storage and marketing hub is planned, both under the responsibility of Novonor/OEC , and the cultivation of rice associated with the agro-industrial plantation of rice, corn and beans, by the Brazilian company Ruzene, in partnership with the Angolan Sílaba.
Cooperation engineering projects are also being planned in the spheres of agricultural development in irrigated areas, in view of the Angolan Government’s projects to combat drought, in the Cunene Valley, and the Brazilian experience of irrigation and support for family agriculture, in the Vale do Cunene. of San Francisco.
Sustainable tourism represents another area of great potential to contribute to the diversification of the Angolan economy, generating quality jobs, promoting environmental education and professional training for the development of the tourism industry in Angola. The two countries are taking the first steps towards a fruitful partnership in this sector.
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