Africa-Press – Angola. More than 1,300 companies, including 30 Angolan ones, participated this Saturday, in Beijing, in the Angola-China Business Forum, which evaluated the multiple investment opportunities in the two countries.
The event, opened by President João Lourenço, brought together 400 companies from the oil and gas sector, 300 from mining and 680 from agriculture, who learned about the Angolan Executive’s priority areas for investors, especially private ones.
During the meeting, the Head of State spoke about the policies implemented in the country to improve the business environment and the key sectors in which Angola intends to rely, in the medium and long term, on Chinese financing.
In his speech, João Lourenço said he intends, with the dynamization of the Lobito Corridor, Benguela province, to work with Chinese businesspeople in the production of food goods, including cereals, grains and sugar.
He also highlighted livestock farming, fishing, the battery production industry for the manufacture of electrically powered cars, photovoltaic panels for solar energy, tourism and other sectors of the economy, as priority areas.
He also invited Chinese businesspeople to invest in certified medicine and vaccine production factories, whose main client will be the Angolan State, to feed the National Health System.
New era
In the same act, the ambassador of Angola to the People’s Republic of China, João Neto, said that the event is the result of cooperation between the Angola-China Chamber of Commerce and Chinese institutions, which took advantage of the visit of the Angolan Head of State to signal the beginning of a new era in cooperative relations between the two countries.
The diplomat highlighted that Angola and China are countries with an old political alignment, which have great economic potential to be explored, expanded and diversified, taking into account the needs and interests of both peoples.
He said that the signing of legal instruments between the two countries, with emphasis on agreements to avoid double taxation and reciprocal protection of investments, will offer a legal framework conducive to more dynamic, broad and diversified cooperation.
“The Angolan State has made an effort to improve infrastructure, mainly in the field of energy and water, access roads, ports, airports, railways and security,” he said.
He called on Angolan businesspeople to make the most of China’s potential, which offers opportunities to grow and transform national raw materials.
Audiences
Meanwhile, before the Business Forum, President João Lourenço held several audiences in the morning and afternoon, and was due to leave at night (afternoon in Angola) for the province of Shandong, where he will work on Sunday.
On Friday, the Angolan President participated in three high-level meetings, namely with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, Prime Minister, Li Qiang, and with the President of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Assembly (Parliament) , Zhao Leji.
Four decades of Cooperation
Currently, cooperation relations between the two countries have their legal framework based on a General Agreement that operates in the most varied areas of economic and social life, with a strong presence in the areas of staff training, in the case of the construction and equipping of the Integrated Center of Technological Training and the Venâncio de Moura Diplomatic Academy, as well as scholarships for young Angolans.
With a stock valued at US$18,410.2 million, corresponding to 37.27% of Angola’s total external public debt (valued at around US$49,387.7 million by the third quarter of 2023), China remains the largest Angola’s creditor, despite the Angolan Government’s efforts to reduce.
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