"We know that Angola's economic diversification is a priority and I told the President that they can count on us, they can count on Portugal. What we want is to create, together with Angola, a space of shared prosperity in which our companies, the our community, the Portuguese-Angolan community, help to create wealth and employment", said Francisco Alegre Duarte, after being accredited by President João Lourenço, marking his full beginning of functions.
He noted that economic diversification "is broad" and offers opportunities for Portuguese companies in various fields, from construction to distribution, as well as the agroforestry industry and sector.
"We have a dense economic connection that unites us and is structuring for both parties and results from the deep empathy that exists between us, in human, affective, historical and cultural terms", he reinforced.
Francisco Alegre Duarte was "very happy" to be back in Angola where he had already been posted as a diplomat.
"No one forgets the color of this land, for me it is a great responsibility and, thanks to my Angolan friends, I feel that I have a home here, just like Angolans in Portugal do," he told journalists.
The diplomat underlined, on the other hand, that "there is a lot to do" in the "special relationship between Angola and Portugal" that covers various dimensions of government cooperation, including education, justice, defense, health, culture and language promotion, as well as the political-diplomatic consultation within the framework of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, the United Nations and the European Union.
Francisco Alegre Duarte also conveyed greetings to João Lourenço from his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and from the prime minister, António Costa, to whom he was diplomatic adviser for the last two years.
The new ambassador arrived in Angola on March 1, replacing Pedro Pessoa e Costa.
A career diplomat since 1998, he served in Timor-Leste (1999), in the Portuguese Mission to the United Nations, in New York (2003-2006), in Angola (2009-2012) and in Italy (2012-2016), according to the embassy page available on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) website.
At the MNE he worked on European affairs, multilateral issues (especially within the UN framework) and bilateral relations (US and Canada, European countries).
He was born in Algeria, in 1973, and holds a degree in Law from the University of Coimbra and a postgraduate degree in International Relations from the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas (ISCSP), from the Technical University of Lisbon.
He was a fellow of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research at Columbia University in New York.
He is a father of four and an author of children's books.
