Africa-Press – Angola. A Business Round Table, held at the Chamber of Commerce, marked, Monday, the agenda of President João Lourenço’s first day of work in Washington, United States of America (USA).
The Round Table, held on the sidelines of the US-Africa Leaders Summit, starting this Tuesday, served for the Angolan Head of State to detail the country’s political and economic reforms, as well as indicate the priority areas for private investment.
Speaking at the event, the President emphasized the issue of improving the business environment, combating corruption and impunity, as well as the process of recovering financial and real estate assets.
According to João Lourenço, Angola has been successful in its asset recovery strategy, having underlined that the recovery processes of some assets in the country “are close to reaching the end”.
In the economic domain, he spoke of the impact of the agreement signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which he considers to have been successfully concluded and helped Angola to achieve the credibility it needs in the world financial market.
According to the Angolan Head of State, one of the more than 40 leaders invited by the US President, Joe Biden, to the USA Africa Summit, the support of the IMF and the World Bank (WB) allowed the country to establish new management rules of the public thing.
In another domain, he invited American businessmen to invest their capital in Angola, preferably in areas such as agriculture, pharmaceutical industry, conservation and tourism.
João Lourenço also suggested private investment in the mining sector, especially rare metals such as nickel.
He announced, on the other hand, that the Angolan State is finalizing some large-scale public investments, in different parts of the country, on the basis of concession tenders, with a view to their being managed, in the future, by private entities.
He added that the concession contract for the management of the Lobito Corridor, which includes the Lobito Commercial Port and the Benguela Railway, whose mission will be to transport minerals produced in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has already been concluded.
João Lourenço assured that other investments of the same size are nearing completion, to be managed by the private sector, such as the Port of Águas Profundas do Caio, in Cabinda province, which will have a Free Development Zone attached to it.
He stated that the State will grant fiscal conditions different from the general one to those selected to manage these infrastructures, an identical procedure for the Free Development Zone of Barra do Dande, whose tender was recently launched.
João Lourenço reiterated that the new Luanda International Airport, called António Agostinho Neto, will be inaugurated next year, which will handle around 15 million passengers and approximately 50 million tonnes of cargo per year.
Attached to that airport, he announced, an airport city will be born, which will end up working as a kind of Special Economic Zone to provide services to the new airport in terms of import and export, hotels, tourism and other areas.
“We see with great eyes that American investors are interested in these big deals, which will become a reality in a very short time. In the specific case of Luanda International Airport, it is already 12 months from now”, he specified.
Meanwhile, in addition to the Business Round Table, the President of the Republic received this Monday the USAID Administrator, Samantha Power, with audiences scheduled for other US political entities and businessmen in the coming days.
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