The announcement was made this Wednesday at the signing ceremony of two protocols between the finance ministries of Portugal and Angola, on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing and the financing contract for phase I of the Project for the Construction of Infrastructures of the village of Muxima.
"Today we managed to take two steps, which are related to a very important signature, due to its symbolism, its effective nature, regarding the requalification of the village of Muxima, which yesterday [Tuesday] I had the opportunity to visit and from there we can work to have better instruments available to Portuguese companies so that they can better serve the Angolan economy", said the Portuguese Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina, who is on his last three-day visit to Angola this Wednesday, with an expected return for Thursday morning.
In Angola, confronted by Lusa on internal political issues, including the parliamentary hearing of the former chairman of the Board of Directors of the state airline TAP, the Portuguese official claimed that he would only talk about his visit to Luanda.
The holder of the Portuguese Finance portfolio acknowledged the way in which Angola has been able to take care of its financial credibility over time, something that "is greatly appreciated in Portugal and recognized".
"I would like to leave a second word of recognition for the very clear way in which the Angolan Government has defined its priorities, from the point of view of what needs to be done in terms of human capital, infrastructure, diversification of the economic base and affirm that we will do it with commitment, but above all with great pleasure from Portuguese companies and even more from the Portuguese State whatever we can do, that is within our reach so that investments and projects can be implemented as quickly as possible, in the end they will serve the Angolan people", he said.
In turn, the Minister of Finance, Vera Daves de Sousa, thanked "the gift" that her counterpart "brought in her luggage".
"He announced, and we are grateful for that, an extension of the financing line from 1.5 billion euros to two billion euros, news that certainly not only Angola and the Angolans are grateful for, but also all Portuguese companies who are motivated and have every interest in being part of this process of building a new Angola", she said.
Vera Daves de Sousa agrees with her counterpart that this visit and similarly to her visit to Portugal in December last year "was marked by a deep feeling of camaraderie and open and frank dialogue, a lot of pragmatism".
"I am totally confident that this will be transmitted to what are the practical results of the financial and economic recovery of the two countries", she stressed.
For Vera Daves de Sousa, technical assistance is equally important for Angola, noting that the cooperation protocol signed "is to take advantage of the experience of the Portuguese Republic in different areas in the field of public finance and also in the field of combating money laundering and financing of terrorism".
"We don't just want the money, we also want the knowledge and we expect to make the best use of the knowledge of the Ministry of Finance of the Portuguese Republic and of all our Portuguese partners, in what is the new moment even better than the previous ones of our cooperation", he said.
