Francisco Queiroz, who was speaking this Wednesday in statements to the press, at the end of the IV Path-Joint Strategic Dialogue between Angola and the European Union in the field of Human Rights, reacted to the report on the Corruption Perception Index 2021, released by the organization Transparency International.
"It is a very positive assessment, Angola rose six positions and it is a sustainable increase, because it comes from previous years and in fact represents the commitment of the Angolan Executive to this very important aspect of human rights, which is the fight against corruption", he stressed.
The official stressed that the report places Angola among the countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have evolved the most in terms of fighting corruption, and "this is due to President João Lourenço's policy of systematically fighting corruption".
"It is very important for us, because it is also an international recognition of the good work that the executive is doing in the fight against corruption", he highlighted.
Sub-Saharan Africa's average is 33 points, the lowest in the world, and 44 countries rank below 50 points.
Among Portuguese-speaking countries, Cape Verde appears in 39th position, with 58 points, São Tomé and Príncipe in 68th position (45 points), Angola in 136th position (29 points), Guinea-Bissau occupies 162nd th position (21 points) and Equatorial Guinea, which occurs in 171st position, appears on the list with only 17 points and deserves some particularly critical considerations in the annual report of the non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Berlin.
The report notes that Angola registers "a significant improvement" following the election of President João Lourenço in 2017, who took significant steps to break corruption.
In turn, the European Union representative in Angola, Jeannette Seppen, highlighted the country's evolution in the field of human rights, despite some challenges that remain.
"Angola is undoubtedly on the right path, but there are still things to do and this is part of our dialogue, our partnership and talking about the steps", said Jeannette Seppens, noting that "there are already many advances that have been made, such as example [the creation of] local human rights committees".
"But there are also challenges, such as gender equality, and we also talk about the big issue this year in Angola, the elections, how do you see the elections, but we have the impression that things are going well and that we are there as excellent partners to accompany and continue in these positive steps", he said.
