According to a note from the Institute for the Management of State Assets and Participations (IGAPE), the contract for the sale of the assets of the Automobile Assembly Plant was signed this Tuesday with the company Opaia, winner of the limited tender by prior qualification, within the scope of the Angolan State Privatization Program (ProPriv), concluding the process that began on January 27.
The CIF-CSG Automobile Assembly Plant, located in the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone, with a total area of 362 thousand square meters, is currently paralyzed. The unit, designed to function as a vehicle assembly hub in Angola, benefits from a strategic location with road, rail and air access, located approximately 28 kilometers from the Port of Luanda and the 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, also close to the new international airport and the Port of Barra do Dande.
The factory was originally set up by the China International Fund (CIF) group, a Chinese-owned holding company that, for years, operated in Angola in partnership with figures linked to the Angolan political-military elite. Several of its assets, including this industrial unit, were reverted to the public sphere within the scope of the State's asset recovery policy, having subsequently been integrated into ProPriv.
The Opaia group, founded in 2002 by Agostinho Kapaia, a businessman linked to the MPLA, operates in several sectors, and currently its largest project is the Amufert fertilizer factory, located in Soyo, Zaire province.
In recent years, the group has been the target of criticism due to the awarding of public contracts by direct agreement, raising questions about transparency in contracting processes in Angola.
