For Francisco Viana, Prodesi (Production Support, Export Diversification and Import Replacement Program), approved by presidential decree in July 2018, failed due to its coordination and lack of training.
"Prodesi failed, because it started to be indirect, started to be coordinated by a ministry", affirmed Francisco Viana, when questioned by Lusa.
Speaking in the context of the presentation of the II Congress of Production and the Productive Sector, scheduled for 4 to 6 November, the official pointed out "several shortcomings" of Prodesi, considering that the "Angola Investe program was easier to operate".
Prodesi is an executive program to "accelerate the diversification of national production and wealth generation, in a set of productions with greater potential for generating value" for export and import substitution in the sectors of food, agro-industry, mineral resources, construction , textiles and others.
Increasing the production and sales volume of priority productions and ranks, accelerating diversification and enhancing national comparative advantages, and reducing the expenditure of foreign exchange resources with the basic basket are some of the fundamental objectives of the program.
According to the president of CEA, recourse to bank reserves, in the light of Instruction 10/2020 of 3 April, prepared by the National Bank of Angola (BNA) for the granting of credit to the real sector of the economy, "has been a mechanism viable, despite many difficulties ".
"This instrument [Instructive 10] is moving, but even so, it is very difficult because the banks themselves do not want to give money for nothing," he pointed out.
Among the flaws, he pointed out issues related to the training of entrepreneurs, asking "that the State is not afraid to allocate a few million to work in training with rules and whoever steals goes to jail".
Francisco Viana also considered that "if everything goes through the Ministry of Economy and Planning (Prodesi manager), there is no ministry that can handle it".
The business leader also criticized the replacement of Angola Investe, created in 2012 and aimed at supporting and financing investment projects for micro, small and medium-sized companies, operated by commercial banks, by Prodesi without taking stock.
"These habits of replacing programs without taking stock and proposing other programs are not the most healthy for an efficient management of our country, we have to first see what was the balance of Angola Investe and why Angola Investe failed", he stressed .
Angola Investe "was better than Prodesi, it was much easier to operate, it was directly with the banks", although it has failed to guarantee payment, he noted.
The State "no longer has the capacity to assume guarantees and also failed in the matter of consultants, the State no longer has the capacity to train consultants, so that consultants can support companies", he noted.
"But it also failed because of our mentality, a lot of people took advantage of Angola Investe to steal, to do corruption and these cannot be said to be the government, it is our mentality to get money and then not pay," said the leader business.
Francisco Viana also criticized the Government's measure on the import of basic basket goods in 'big bags' (bulk bags), as of 17 June, referring to this being an "anecdotal measure".
"We were not even consulted about the 'big bags' decree and we think that this has nothing to do with it, it is better to consult the businessmen and so they will stop doing these things, there are things that do not go into the 'big bags', they have to consult businessmen ", he replied to Lusa.
"This habit of taking action without consulting businesspeople is what this is, which, for me, is an anecdote", he shot.
The decree establishes that imports of a set of products, essentially food products, should be made in bulk (in 'big bags' of at least one ton), with the remaining packaging and / or packaging process being done in Angola.
According to the executive, the measure will allow imports to be made at lower prices, in addition to promoting the development of the packaging and logistics industries, which generate jobs, and contribute to savings in foreign exchange.
