According to the director of ARC, Nelson Lembe, the strategic plan for the five-year period 2025-2029 is aligned with the guidelines of the Angola 2050 Long-Term Strategy and the National Development Plan (PDN) 2023-2027, containing, however, threats, strengths and weaknesses for its materialization.
"This plan recognises that there are weaknesses, namely the lack of specialist staff in competition matters and lack of financial autonomy, as well as threats, such as the lack of knowledge about the ARC and competition rules on the part of stakeholders [main actors in the sector]", said the official.
Difficulties in obtaining reliable data for sectoral analyses are also among the threats and antitrust legislation is among the forces identified in the document, the director highlighted.
Nelson Lemba considered, on the other hand, that ARC's human capital has played a relevant role in the process of promoting and defending competition in Angola and, consequently, "constitutes an important factor in the pursuit of its mission and vision".
"Therefore, for the present strategic plan, ARC maintains its focus on best practices in human capital management, in order to guarantee continuity, stability and operational efficiency", he stated, at the opening of the Strategic Plan presentation ceremony in Luanda.
The director of ARC also said that, despite the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal challenges underlying the national and international situation, the entity will maintain its focus on promoting a culture of competition and rigorously defending compliance with the Competition Law.
He assured that the authority will continue developing actions to prevent, investigate and combat illicit policies that restrict competition, harming companies, consumers and the national economy.
Without disclosing the costs for the implementation of the five-year strategic plan, the leader also said that the instrument aims to achieve two fundamental objectives during its implementation, namely, strengthening the role of the ARC in interacting with government entities and reinforcing the institutional structure.
Promoting and disseminating a culture of competition, improving the quality and efficiency of the presentation of merger operations, strengthening the fight against anti-competitive conduct, improving the quality and efficiency of investigations and developing and enhancing the human capital of the ARC are among the seven strategic objectives of the plan.
In turn, the head of the ARC Market Studies and Monitoring Department, Gui Kialanda, who presented the plan, highlighted the critical success factors for achieving the strategic objectives, in particular human resources, financial resources, economic policies, legal processes, independence of the body and facilities and IT system.
The ARC, supervised by the Ministry of Finance, began its functions in 2019 and in the last six years it has assessed 73 business concentration operations, deliberated on 71 operations and issued 14 recommendations aimed at mitigating public policies that harm healthy competition.
