Africa-Press – Angola. The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, wants Angola designed for agribusiness and bets on economic cooperation with Norway, which is very dominated by oil.
In the view of the Angolan President, the exchange of business missions between the countries should be focused on increasing areas of interest with emphasis on fisheries and the energy sector.
It was in this climate of mutual advantage that the businessmen’s meeting, the “Angola Business Forum”, took place yesterday in one of the conference rooms of the Grand Hotel in Oslo, with more than 30 companies and official representations of the two governments.
In the opening speech, the Angolan Chief Executive thanked the Norwegian Association of Business with Africa (NABA) for organizing the business meeting, having reiterated that the country wants to share experiences with the European partner and the diversification of areas of interest in business .
To the Norwegian businessmen, João Lourenço showed that Angola has an abundance of fertile land, rivers, climate and the Government’s willingness to support investors with a focus on agribusiness.
Producing wheat, corn, beans, rice and other grains should be seen as a way to reinforce food security and good business. The vision is for businessmen to invest and be able to take advantage of the current world demand for food, fundamentally due to the Russia-Ukraine conflicts.
And, to guarantee an attractive environment for foreign investment, the Head of State told the Norwegian businessmen what Angola is doing and also what has already been possible to achieve, in addition to what is intended.
Opening of opportunities
According to President João Lourenço, this moment is, in fact, a good opportunity to deepen the dialogue and exchange views on the various investment opportunities that exist in Angola and Norway.
Norway, he said, is one of the most prosperous countries in Europe, with one of the highest Gross Domestic Product “per capita” in the world and often cited as one of the places in the world with the best quality of life.
It has a diversified economy, with an excellent business environment, which allows it to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), export to the world not only oil and gas, but also sea products, state-of-the-art machinery and equipment and manufactured goods. As the Angolan Chief Executive said, the Norwegian blue economy has a very important weight in the process of creating wealth in this country and in exports.
In this sense, João Lourenço said that Angola can learn a lot from the Norwegian experience, particularly in the use of natural resources and their conversion into wealth and social well-being for the country and the people.
“We intend to strengthen our friendly relations with Norway and establish the bases of a strategic cooperation between the two countries, so that both parties obtain the greatest benefits from this cooperation, for the good of our respective peoples”, he assumed.
The path already taken
The Angolan Executive, over the last five years, has taken very important steps towards making the country an increasingly attractive space for attracting foreign investment.
According to the President of the Republic, the objective pursued by Angola is to build a strong and sustainable economy, an economy that is increasingly less dependent on oil resources.
For this reason, he said, government action has been focused on deepening the foundations of a Democratic State of Law, where there is no impunity for acts of corruption and practices of nepotism and influence peddling.
“We are building a State that presents high levels of transparency in the management of the treasury, where equality of opportunities is preserved for all citizens and healthy competition between market agents. A State where access to justice is fast and equal for all everyone and where merit and professional competence are valued”, he guaranteed.
João Lourenço also stated that, taking into account the harmful effects of the phenomenon of corruption in the economy and, above all, in Angolan society, the Executive and the competent organs of justice, have been taking concrete measures to eliminate the effects of this phenomenon and thus turn Angola into a true rule of law in which no one is above the law.
“We are also implementing initiatives to combat money laundering, as well as to recover assets that were constituted with public resources and that were illegally transferred to the property of third parties”, he added.
In addition to consolidating the democratic rule of law, Angola is also developing actions to consolidate the market economy.
Macroeconomic stabilization
The President of the Republic said, yesterday, to the businessmen present at the “Angola Business Forum”, that the country had successfully developed a macroeconomic stabilization program, which allowed achieving positive results with regard to the balance of fiscal accounts, the reduction of inflation rates, the normalization of the foreign exchange market and the stabilization of the level of the country’s international reserves.
The Head of State said that this program was completed in December 2021 and had the financial and technical support of the International Monetary Fund, based on an Extended Financing Program.
Completed steps
In 2021, Angola finally emerged from a long period of economic recession. This was achieved thanks to a strong growth of 6.4 percent in the non-oil sector, with emphasis on agriculture and livestock, fisheries, manufacturing industry, extractive industry (diamonds), trade, construction, transport and other services, said the head of the Angolan Government.
In this sense, it showed the data for the first half of the current year, which point to a growth of 3.2 percent in the Gross Domestic Product.
In view of these indicators, said João Lourenço, the aim is to consolidate and deepen this new paradigm of growth in the country, a growth led by the non-oil economy, where the private sector is the main actor. It is estimated that in 2022, the Angolan economy will grow by 2.7 percent and once again with a performance led by the non-oil sector.
Privatization Program attracts partnerships of national and foreign companies
Angola is giving priority to the private sector to lead economic development and to reinforce the role of this segment in the economy, since 2019, a vast program of privatization of assets, which previously belonged to the State.
Data made available by President João Lourenço, in his speech, indicated that 94 privatization processes have already been completed. This strategy involves more than 150 assets in sectors such as telecommunications, agriculture, financial services, hotels and tourism, industry, fuel distribution and several shares in the national oil company, Sonangol, in the field of providing services to the oil industry. .
This Programme, said the Head of State, also foresees, when deemed opportune, the partial privatization of Sonangol, Endiama and TAAG, companies of great reference in Angola in the fields of hydrocarbons, diamonds and air transport.
“I have no doubts that this Program constitutes a great opportunity for a fruitful and highly profitable cooperation between Angolan and Norwegian businessmen, which will certainly benefit the economies of both countries”, he guaranteed.
João Lourenço said he considered this Privatization Program as an important way to strengthen the country’s private sector, to make the economy more efficient and also to consolidate the process of building a market economy in Angola.
“In this effort to create a strong and diversified economy in Angola, we want to attract investors from Norway who bring to our country not only financial capital and advanced technology, but who bring above all the know-how that allows us to diversify and grow quickly and efficiency to our internal production of goods and services”, he invited.
Measures encourage job creation Employment
levels in Angola are expected to increase significantly as a result of measures to encourage private intervention in the economy. These measures, according to the Angolan Chief Executive, will improve citizens’ incomes and exports will be more diversified.
“The country offers opportunities in various fields, with emphasis on agriculture, forestry, fisheries, mineral resources, manufacturing industry, trade, energy and water, construction, transport, telecommunications, financial services, hotels and tourism, that is to say in virtually all sectors of national life”, he said.
Norwegian investments in Angola outside the oil sector are still not very significant. We want Norwegian companies to be involved in other sectors of our economy, to help Angola diversify its production base more quickly and efficiently.
According to João Lourenço, Norway has been one of the global leaders in maritime industries and ocean technology, namely offshore, maritime transport, water mobility, fishing and aquaculture.
Potential in focus
Norwegian companies have accumulated over time a vast stock of know-how and unparalleled technological capacity in this field, which can benefit the fishing sector in Angola, especially in the development of aquaculture projects, from a business and community perspective.
President João Lourenço said that sustainable development is the main challenge for economies in this 21st century, as Norway is also one of the world leaders in clean energy and the blue economy.
Like Angola, Norway benefits from abundant sources of clean energy production, hence the fact that the Norwegian industry is competitive and has low carbon emissions, according to the head of state.
In this way, the Norwegian experience in clean energy can be better used by the country to intensify investment in the production of sustainable energy. For the aforementioned areas and others that may be identified, Angola wants a framework of action to be defined that involves not only attracting direct investment from Norway in Angola, but also exploring lines of credit to support exports.
On the occasion, the Head of State reiterated the invitation to the Norwegian private sector to embrace the enormous business opportunities that the country offers and thus be able to take advantage of the prevailing stability and security environment in Angola and the high potential for profitability that business offers in the country. country.
The Executive intends that the Norwegians cooperate in the process of transforming Angola into a prosperous and modern country, capable of providing the people with the best living conditions.
“I am sure that both the Government of Norway and Norwegian businessmen will have every interest in contributing with their means and knowledge to the consolidation of a democratic Nation open to free enterprise in one of the potentially richest regions of the planet” concluded the chief of Angolan State.
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