Africa-Press – Angola. China intends to give greater impetus to cooperation relations with Angola within the framework of the new international situation, with a view to promoting peace and stability in regional and international affairs, announced, Monday, in Luanda, the ambassador of the Asian giant in the country, Gong Tao, at the end of the audience granted to him by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, at the Presidential Palace, in Cidade Alta.
“We will continue to maintain contacts at the highest level for the consolidation of our political relations in order to obtain, more and more, fruitful results in the areas of trade and investment”, declared the Chinese diplomat to journalists, stressing that China intends to join efforts with Angola to help international partners in the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
With the Head of State, the diplomat said he also addressed bilateral relations, which “are in a good period of development”, at a time when Angola and China are celebrating the 44th anniversary of the establishment of cooperation relations.
The diplomat also referred that he evaluated with President João Lourenço the state of execution of the works underway in the country, implemented with Chinese funding, namely the new Luanda International Airport, the Caculo Cabaça Hydroelectric Power Station (Cuanza-Norte) and the Port of Caio (Cabinda). “We are interested and willing to secure funding for these works, so that they are completed on time and contribute to Angola’s rapid economic and social growth”, he said. Gong Tao said he had heard remarks from President João Lourenço on the importance of diversification of the Angolan economy and the launching, in the near future, of new projects, within the framework of the National Development Programme, which, according to him, “we will try to evaluate”.
The Chinese diplomat referred, by the way, that China is studying, with the Angolan authorities, the possibility of holding, during this year, the second edition of the Joint Commission. He referred that the occasion should be used to assess new cooperation possibilities, not only in the field of financing, but also investment and staff training.
commercial exchanges
The Chinese ambassador to Angola revealed that bilateral trade reached US$207 billion last year, underlining the desire of his country’s government to see an increasingly diversified range of goods that sustain bilateral trade, such as way of also boosting Angolan export capacities to the Asian giant.
Angola is China’s second largest trading partner on the African continent, after South Africa, recalled the diplomat, adding that China continues to be Angola’s largest trading partner in the last 15 years.
Gong Tao also referred that his country is interested in signing agreements with Angola in the Agriculture and Fisheries sectors, adding that China has already started large investments in farms spread across Angolan territory, which, at that time, already offer “good harvests”. .
For the diplomat, Angola will have a “brilliant future” in the Agriculture sector, anticipating the interest in this sector not only from the Government of Beijing, but also from other international and regional partners.
Following the lifting of restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chinese diplomat said that in recent times groups of Chinese businessmen have frequently visited Angola, with the aim of investing in trade, while also announcing that Angola was invited to participate in the 3rd edition of the China-Africa Trade and Investment Fair, which will take place at the end of next June, in the Chinese province of Hunan.
For the ambassador, the event should be used for Angolan businessmen to show their Chinese counterparts new business and investment opportunities opening up in Angola, in various sectors.
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