For Ricardo Pedrosa Gomes, Angola "with all the problems it has, and there are many, with all the difficulties it faces and will face, is a country with immense potential in many areas, in addition to the one on which its entire economy was based in the last decades", that of oil.
For this reason, Portuguese construction companies that "have been in good times, but also in bad times" in the country should not leave now, leaving the vacant place for others, who "have been distracted for years", to occupy it.
"Of course Angola has problems", generated by the excessive dependence on oil, admitted the head of AECOPS, who took office two days ago as vice president of the new entity that integrates his association and the Association of Industrial Construction and Public Works (AICCOPN), also called AICCOPN and which will be chaired by Reis Campos.
In an interview with Lusa about the impact of the crisis on the market for Portuguese companies in the construction sector, Ricardo Gomes also considered that, at this moment, Angola does not have the capacity "to by itself, or on its own initiative, relaunch the investment that is necessary in all other areas where the potential exists".
But "the most important thing is to have the potential, and that is there, and sooner or later it will reveal itself and attract” other investors, he affirmed, stressing that it is precisely at these moments, of lesser breath of the markets, that "the selection is made between those who are resilient and strategic in their performance and those who are opportunistic".
In the opinion of Ricardo Gomes, at this moment many of the companies have already reduced the risk of exposure to the market, diversifying their internationalization strategies, and this is an advantage at this time.
However, "the Portuguese companies that have remained in Angola for the past five years are the ones that have in relation to internationalization and the Angolan market a vision that does not end at the moment, but that has prospects", he assured.
Therefore, he considered that Angola will continue to be "a very important market for Portuguese construction companies". Even because "he was responsible, in the last decade, for many of the internationalization processes of many, which was something that until (...) 2005 was not exactly a standard in the construction sector", he recalled.
But the scenario in Angola "has changed radically in the past four years," he said.
The small ones, which could only live on things to do in Angola, "maybe even disappeared, because they were without a market and they no longer had it in Portugal," he admitted.
In the case of medium and large companies, there was a reduction from 40 to 25 to 30 percent.
The reduction process started precisely from the moment that Angola entered into financial assistance programs, he explained.
Today, according to the president of AECOPS, there are about 100 Portuguese companies with size in Angola.
However, "today there are several Portuguese companies, with capital, or even the majority of Portuguese capital, that no longer exist in Portugal and exist in Angola", thanks to a phenomenon that had "a lot to do with the crisis in Portugal", and that today employ "many Portuguese workers", he explained.
For all intents and purposes, these companies are Angolan, and Ricardo Gomes excludes them from their accounting.
In addition to these, Ricardo Gomes also recalled the "many small companies in the supply chain exporting to Angola".
On April 21, the Government announced, through a note released by the office of the Minister of Finance, Vera Daves, that it would “suspend the execution of all contracts under the Public Investment Program, whose funding source is not guaranteed”.
