Angola is implementing "important reforms aimed at becoming a country increasingly open to the world, especially with a business climate that is more welcoming to national private investment", said João Lourenço this Monday.
Speaking at the opening of the Japan – Angola Business Forum, in Tokyo, he assured that Angola is a country that respects and protects private property and healthy competition between economic agents and that defends and ensures the improvement in the international circulation of capital, income and dividends.
"We will continue to deepen the reforms initiated, above all to promote the development of national human capital and the socio-economic development of the country", he assured.
João Lourenço, who traveled to Japan for the first time for an official visit that will last until Wednesday, invited Japanese businessmen to invest in Angola "in the most diverse business opportunities".
He pointed out the need for Japanese businessmen to invest in the various sectors of economic activity in the Portuguese-speaking country, "in addition to oil and gas extraction", particularly in agriculture, fisheries, industry, tourism and services.
But also in sectors with a social impact such as health and education, he said.
"Angola intends to develop all sectors, but with greater emphasis on the agro-industrial sector, aiming to increase the offer of jobs, achieve self-sufficiency of goods in the internal market and diversify exports", he stressed.
He also guaranteed "all the necessary support" for Japanese businessmen's investment intentions in the various sectors of the Angolan economy.
The strengthening of bilateral relations with the world's third largest economy is the motto of João Lourenço's visit to Japan, where he was received this Monday by Emperor Naruhito.
According to the head of state, cooperation between Angola and Japan has been based on complementarity with gains for both parties and, above all, with a view to achieving and strengthening the economic and social development of both countries.
"It is based on this climate of cooperation that Angola has benefited from the "know-how" and financial support from Japan, in various domains, both public and private", stressed João Lourenço, recalling that Angola has benefited over the years from several Japanese lines of credit to finance public investment projects.
The governments of Angola and Japan, he noted, are working "tirelessly" in negotiating the approval of the Reciprocal Investment Protection Agreement, a cooperation instrument that João Lourenço hopes to see concluded during his visit.
He also hailed the different intentions and investment projects that Japanese companies have expressed interest in developing in Angola, such as that of the Toyota Tsusho Group, which intends to install a vehicle assembly line and spare parts factory in Angola.
He also said that financial institutions in Japan, as a rule, have "favourable" financing terms and conditions, with low interest rates and sufficiently long repayment terms, expressing interest in working with the Japanese authorities in structuring financing lines with the aforementioned characteristics.
To "support the effort to diversify the national economy with regard to the expansion and modernization of the country's infrastructure and, also, to boost the private business sector", he pointed out.
The presence of financing and Japanese businessmen in several Angolan public investment projects, such as in the textile sector, in the rehabilitation of the Port of Namibe, in the Integrated Project of Baía do Namibe, in telecommunications and others was also highlighted by João Lourenço.
The Japanese people and the Angolan people "who have already faced a period of war in the past, share several similar characteristics, with the capacity for resilience to overcome great obstacles".
"It is for this reason that Angola and Japan are in solidarity with all the peace solutions that can be found for the various conflicts that are registered today in different parts of the world, such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which place jeopardize world peace and security," he noted.
"The world needs development and sustainability and nations that cooperate in this sense. I am sure that the cooperation relationship between Angola and Japan represents well this model of stable relationship and focused on socioeconomic development", concluded the President.
It should be noted that, in Tokyo, João Lourenço received, in audience, Atsuro Kuroda, president of the Japan Insurance Agency for Exports (NEXI), to address aspects related to the agency's sphere of intervention.
