In the Belgian capital, around 800 people participated this Thursday in the first EU-Angola Business Forum, including a high-level national delegation and 20 top executives from the main European companies.
The aim was to launch a series of public-private dialogues on Angola's reforms to support private sector investment and business linkages focusing on areas with the greatest business potential for Europeans.
The Minister of State for Economic Coordination, Manuel Nunes Júnior, gave his vision on Angola's political and economic reform agenda, a new "governance paradigm" that, he underlined, aims to create a true democratic and lawful State and establish the foundations of a market economy capable of promoting economic diversification.
In this context, he addressed the fight against corruption and impunity, highlighting the recovery of financial and immovable assets, as well as the auditing actions of the Court of Auditors that have allowed "moralizing the financial execution of the State".
In the economic field, he highlighted the implementation of the Macroeconomic Stabilization Program, as of 2018, which allowed the country to leave a situation of successive budget deficits and enter a path of positive fiscal balances, highlighting the "systematically positive" assessments of the IMF.
"This is a clear sign of the international financial community's confidence in the reform program that the Government has been implementing", pointed out Manuel Nunes Júnior, stressing that national businessmen are open to establishing partnership relations with businesspeople from other countries.
"European investment will always be very welcome in Angola with a view to providing our country not only with financial capital, but above all with the 'know-how' and technology we so desperately need", he appealed.
The Minister of Economy and Planning, Mário Caetano João, also spoke of Angola's interest in presenting itself as an investment destination and finding, among Angolans living in Angola, "a bridge" so that European companies can also internationalize in the Angolan market.
These intentions were welcomed on the European side.
"The time has come for us to say we are going to be together and we are going to rebuild better in a more digital way, with the inclusion of young people who play an important role in the diversification of Angola's economy", said Ambassador Jeannette Seppen, head of the European Union delegation in Angola, in Brussels.
The European official recalled that a multi-annual program is available for Angola that includes 275 million euros for the coming years, focusing on economic diversification, governance and the development of human capital.
Angola should also explore the Global Gateway initiative, which has an envelope of 300 billion euros available for the African continent, she said.
