Africa-Press – Angola. The Executive approved, Tuesday, during the 3rd ordinary meeting of the Economic Commission of the Council of Ministers, chaired by President João Lourenço, the Business Environment Improvement Plan for the period 2023-2024, with a view to reducing the number and procedures for setting up companies and costs.
The document contains the fundamental activities to be developed, as well as the milestones that must be reached, indicating the entities responsible for their execution, the deadlines and levels of priority.
According to the statement issued at the meeting, the Executive intends, within the framework of this initiative, to continue to improve the business environment for Angolan companies, by improving their efficiency, as well as the quality of regulations, specifically the application of clear measures and transparent.
The objectives of this initiative also include the protection of property rights and the environment, guaranteeing the safety of the population, implementation and use of electronic platforms and the promotion of information sharing between government entities.
In order to achieve this goal, the Business Environment Improvement Plan establishes 11 areas of intervention, namely obtaining credit, minority investors, international trade, executing contracts, resolving insolvency, opening companies, licensing, property registration, obtaining electricity, paying taxes and cross-cutting activities.
The Economic Commission of the Council of Ministers has also assessed, for submission to public consultation, as early as next week, the Angola 2050 Long Term Strategy, considered fundamental of the National Planning System.
The instrument, advances the statement, is a development program that represents a significant paradigm shift in relation to the Long-Term Strategy Angola 2025, whose replacement is justified by the changes registered in the internal and external contexts, initiated in 2008 and deepened from 2014, after the sudden drop in the price of oil, which forced an assessment to be carried out halfway through.
The Minister of Economy and Planning clarified that the Long-Term Strategy-Angola 2050 makes it possible to see the main aspirations of Angola up to that year, with emphasis on the fact that the country will position itself with an economy of US$290 billion, going from a GDP of approximately 120 billion dollars to doubling up to 290 billion dollars.
Mário Caetano João said that, within the scope of this document, unemployment is expected to fall by 1/3, from approximately 30 percent to 20 percent. “We also hope that the public debt has better quality, positioning itself below 60 percent of GDP”, predicted the minister, recalling that the Long-Term Strategy-Angola 2050 has already been the target of more than a thousand consultations from the most diverse private sector operators, civil society and international organisations.
Within the scope of public finance management, the Economic Commission approved the Annual Debt Plan for the year 2023.
The document materializes the financing strategy within the scope of the State Budget execution process, taking into account internal and external financing sources and considering a level of indebtedness within sustainable limits.
At the same meeting, the Financial Programming of the National Treasury for the second quarter of 2023 was approved, a document containing projections of inflows and outflows of financial resources in the period in question, revenue assumptions, operations with direct and indirect impact on treasury , as well as financial operations and an approach to the risks involved in their execution.
GDP evolution
Finally, the Economic Commission of the Council of Ministers was informed about the evolution of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) relative to the fourth quarter of last year. This document evaluates the behavior of the aforementioned economic indicator during the period, highlighting that, despite the weak performance of the oil sector, including gas, its performance confirms the consolidation of the recovery of economic activity, determined by the positive dynamics of the non-oil sector, a fact that is reflected in the increase in the levels of national production.
Referring to the subject, the Minister of Economy and Planning said that, in homologous terms (comparison between December 2021 and December 2022), there was a growth of 2.6 percent.
Mário Caetano João noted that the non-oil sector grew by 4.9 percent, which was enough to offset the negative growth of the oil sector by around 5 percent. “On the other hand, we had a global growth of 2.6 percent in the quarter”, he highlighted.
The minister stressed that the information referring to the fourth quarter of 2022 makes it possible to anticipate what would be the preliminary data for the end of 2022, which point to a GDP growth of approximately 3.05 percent in 2022. He added that the Transport sector was among the biggest contributors to growth in the fourth quarter.
“Mystery Shopper” figure created
The Minister of Economy and Planning, Mário Caetano João, clarified, at the end of the meeting, that the Business Environment Improvement Plan for the 2023-2024 period brings an increased approach, in order to be more incisive in improving the business environment in the country.
Mário Caetano João revealed that the aforementioned initiative will include a well-known figure in the banking sector who is the “Mystery Client”, a figure that will help to understand whether what has been adopted to improve the business environment has actually been , implemented locally.
“This Mystery Shopper takes the place of the private sector entrepreneur and goes to the institutions where he needs to see his life sorted out, for example, see all the processes and procedures related to opening a business and will be able to give us a more impartial report on what are the main constraints for the business sector to enjoy a more simplified business environment”, he stressed.
The minister clarified that the “Mystery Client” will be an independent figure from the Government, who will be in charge of bringing monthly reports on how easy it is to do business in Angola. “We will set up, depending on the most diverse constraints, projects with our own teams, ‘task forces’ so that the constraints can have a project approach also with a beginning, middle and end for the improvement of the business environment in the country”, he stressed.
Still on this matter, Mário Caetano João announced that the country was invited by the World Bank to take part in the new Pilot Project for the Improvement of the Business Environment, as a result of the most diverse actions undertaken in this area.
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