Ver Angola

Economy

Greg Mills: Angola must overcome governance and debt challenges to prosper

South African writer Greg Mills said, in Luanda, that Angola still faces the challenges of governance, debt, economic growth and managing the failure of past policies.

:

According to the author, the war caused in Angola "a political economy, largely extractive and largely corrupt, designed around the distribution of income, especially oil, but also property and diamonds".

"This had economic costs for Angola", he said, highlighting that the country "has made very few advances since the 60s until today", regretting that it has been dependent only on oil "over the 60 years, especially since 1975", the year of its independence.

"Most of the oil revenues were wasted in the last 40 years, they spent money on activities that have no relation to the current economy, spending on properties, parties and champagne, supplemented with debts for megaprojects", he said.

The author of the book "Estado Rico, Estado Pobre", a work presented by economists Alves da Rocha and Carlos Rosado de Carvalho, also considered that investments were made that were "not very productive for the population".

"Large infrastructure, large hospitals, large airports, all of this is attractive, but has very little impact on the daily lives of Angolans. This waste may have facilitated politics among the elite, but it increased the economic challenges of Angola, which was emerging from a war civil situation, which left four million people displaced", he noted.

The situation he described is associated with low oil production and the lack of alternative sectors for the country's economy and growth, he added.

"The result of all this translates into little growth and an increase in unemployment", said the author, highlighting that the great difficulty in changing this situation is "stopping digging to get out of this hole".

"They have to stop digging, first, realize that they are in the hole, then stop digging and get out of the hole. And getting out of the hole requires a set of new policies", he defended.

The researcher presented suggestions for a way out of this crisis: the first, macroeconomic discipline, which means, for example, lowering inflation, diversifying the economy, focusing on agriculture and tourism, praising visa exemptions for several countries and advising that access is increased, with more air connections and cheaper flights.

"TAAG was successful, for example, the flight came from Cape Town, stopped in Angola and then continued to Europe, which is an improvement, but it is the revitalization that will have the most impact on lives and will remove dependence on oil ", said the head of the Brenthurst Foundation, based in Johannesburg, also suggesting the construction of basic infrastructure and the development of public-private partnerships.

Speaking to Lusa, the director of CEIC, Alves da Rocha, highlighted that "in a marginal way" the work portrays the Angolan reality, which "is not even a rich State, nor is it a poor State and it is not a successful", highlighting the teachings of the work.

The professor said that one of the reasons for the delay in Angola's success "has to do with the lack of political will" for the country to achieve this status, which involves deepening democracy and quality education.

Related

Permita anúncios no nosso site

×

Parece que está a utilizar um bloqueador de anúncios
Utilizamos a publicidade para podermos oferecer-lhe notícias diariamente.