Manuel Nunes Júnior, who was speaking at the Angola/Spain Business Forum, organized in the scope of the visit that the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, is making this Thursday to the country, said that the country intends to end the great dependence on oil.
"We want to change definitively the economic structure of Angola, in order to have a more diversified economy, an economy in which the private sector starts to have a more active role in the performance of the Angolan economy and that with its action decreases the weight of the oil sector in the Angolan Gross Domestic Product", he said.
The governor invited the Spanish companies to invest in agriculture, industry, fishing, tourism, construction and other areas that help to diversify Angola's sources of income.
According to Manuel Nunes Júnior, the diversification of the economy is the great challenge that the country is facing, and it is necessary to establish "confidence" in the national economy, a "fundamental" factor.
"Trust in institutions and in business is a fundamental element for the functioning of modern economies and societies. It can even be said that where there is no confidence there are no investments at adequate levels," he said, noting that very important steps had already been taken in the country to restore confidence among economic agents in the Angolan market.
Manuel Nunes Júnior noted that important steps had been taken, in 2020, with regard to the country's foreign debt, with its reperfiling, in order to make it sustainable and create better treasury space to meet the country's major needs.
Angola joined the debt service suspension initiative, proposed by the G20, and negotiated with its main creditors, which together represent about 55.2 percent of the external debt service, favorable terms for the remaining debt service, he said.
"This debt reperfiling with external creditors will allow the postponement of the payment of part of the debt service until 2023, with the creation of fiscal space of approximately six billion dollars over the next two years," he pointed out.
The Minister of State for Economic Coordination stressed that in order to take advantage of this interval, the country must make efforts to leave the situation of economic recession that it has been in for five years and enter a scenario of economic growth resumption.
Manuel Nunes Junior pointed out that the implementation of the privatization program, which involves 150 assets, is underway in the country since 2019, of which 39 have already been sold to date, presenting the results that confirm that it must continue to be executed with rigor.
For this year, the privatization of a wide range of assets is expected, which includes companies in the banking sector, insurance, telecommunications, hotels and tourism, industry, fuel distribution and various stakes of Sonangol in the provision of oil industry services.
"Here is a great opportunity for fruitful and highly profitable cooperation between Angolan and Spanish businessmen that will certainly benefit the economies of both countries," he said.
"We want Spain to help us build an economy that is less and less dependent on oil, an economy that grows in a sustained and sustainable way, an economy that generates more and more jobs and raises the income of Angolan citizens, that allows us to fight hunger and poverty in Angola and that manages to raise the living standards of Angolans more and more. We count on Spain", he appealed.
Pedro Sánchez is visiting Angola on Thursday, during which he will meet with President João Lourenço.
