João Lourenço announces increase in the minimum wage and adjustments in public service salaries

João Lourenço went to the country this Friday in Menongue, Cuando Cubango province. "In compliance with the policies defended by the MPLA, the executive will approve in the coming days the increase in the national minimum wage and the adjustment of civil service salaries, thus increasing the monthly income of workers and families", said the head of state.

In 2019, the Government set the minimum wage at 21,454.10 kwanzas for the agriculture and civil service sector, 26,817.00 kwanzas for transport, services and manufacturing and 32,181.00 kwanzas for trade and extractive industry, an increase of 30 percent compared to the value defined in 2017.

According to João Lourenço, the main recipient of all MPLA action will continue to be the Angolan citizen, their development and social well-being. "Building concrete infrastructure is important, but even more important will be investing in staff and professionals who, with their knowledge and dedication, put these infrastructures at the service of citizens," he said.

João Lourenço stressed that unemployment and poverty "are in the line of concerns of the executive, who works permanently in the search for the best solutions to overcome them".

"We are fully aware that the purchasing power of workers and citizens in general is not great for the aforementioned reasons", he added, stressing that to face the situation, the Government has been promoting entrepreneurship, self-employment, micro and small businesses, providing training and work tools, especially to young people, within the scope of the Program for Support and Promotion of Entrepreneurship (PAPE), the Program for Reconversion of the Informal Economy (PREI) and others aimed at the same objective.

The MPLA leader also highlighted the Kwenda program, of cash transfers in favor of the poorest and most disadvantaged populations, especially in rural areas, which "has been a success because it has alleviated the suffering of thousands of poor families" among the social supports that have been made available to the population.

"The injection into the market of large quantities of basic food products, made by the Strategic Food Reserve (REA) will necessarily lower the prices of the most consumed food products in the coming months, increasing the purchasing power of citizens", he added.

Regarding the general elections to be held in August this year, João Lourenço said that the MPLA is going to the scrutiny "with the feeling of having known how to overcome the adversities" that the country faces due to several factors, including the covid-19 pandemic. 19.

"The executive has invested the necessary resources and has known how to manage the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus well, having achieved that, in two years of a pandemic, the country has a number of positive cases of less than one hundred thousand and a total of victims mortalities of less than two thousand", he underlined.

João Lourenço also stressed that "the result of the courageous and profound reforms carried out over four years, the Angolan economy begins to grow this year and in a diversified way".

According to the MPLA leader, in addition to the incentives and support for the private business sector, which has responded positively and whose results are beginning to be felt with the increase in agricultural, fishing and industrial production, the Government has not neglected the social, having increased the supply of electricity and drinking water, the offer of housing, school and hospital infrastructure, as well as the increase in jobs in the social area, by holding public tenders for the admission of thousands of health and education staff and professionals annually.

"Investments in important public works, such as hospitals, educational establishments, production, transport and distribution of electricity, production, supply and distribution of drinking water, roads and bridges will continue to be the Government's main bets", he said.

Regarding the drought in the south of the country, the President said that the executive's attention will continue to be given, in serving the population and in the execution of the various structuring projects for water transport and storage, from the Cunene River and others.

"We can see today how pertinent and timely was the decision to launch the Integrated Plan for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM), whose projects are already bringing the hospital, the medical center, the school, electricity, drinking water, the paving of streets or even the sanitation and beautification of towns and cities", he said.