João Lourenço, who was on a state visit to the Arab Republic of Egypt until the end of Thursday, took part in a meeting with Egyptian businessmen and later received an audience with two businessmen from the energy sector in that country.
These were Ahmed Esewedy, chairman of Esewedy Electric, and Ahmed Mostafa El Assar, chairman of Arab Contractor, the Angolan Presidency said in a statement.
Esewedy Electric, which has invested in Angola in the electricity sector for 20 years, with its focus on Luanda, “intends to increase its business in other parts of the country, particularly in the generation, transmission and distribution of energy”, it stressed.
The Arab Contractor has operated in Angola for over 15 years and “intends to return to the national market with a new look”, the statement also states, noting that the company created a company in the country for the energy sector last year, “and also intends to establish partnerships in different areas”.
In his speech during the meeting with Egyptian businesspeople, the President invited the Arab country's business community to invest in the diversification of Angola's economy, considering that, from the partnership between Angola and Egypt, “the country with the most to gain, without a shadow of a doubt, is Angola”.
“Angola needs, with your help and obviously that of others, to work towards one day reaching the level of development that Egypt already has today”, he said.
João Lourenço recalled that Angola faced a long period of armed conflict, “which obviously hindered development”, a period in which the political system was a one-party system and a market economy, “in which, practically, the only investor was the State”.
“In other words, the private sector was, if you will allow me to say so, gagged. No country develops without the private sector of the economy. We knew this, but it took us a while to have the courage to take the necessary step for the public sector, the State, to withdraw from the economy and leave that place to those who deserve it, that is, the private sector”, he pointed out.
The President highlighted Angola’s oil potential over the decades, considering, however, that today the country is creating – and is “at a very advanced stage” – a new business environment, “with very clear rules”.
Addressing Egyptian businesspeople, Lourenço made an “appeal for the private sector of the economy to develop and gradually replace the role that the public sector has played over the last few decades”.
“We want, to put it briefly, to diversify our economy. We want, we can and we must do so, otherwise the private sector of the economy will succumb, and when I say private sector, I mean that we are counting on national private investors, but also including foreign private investors,” he added.
The Government wants Egyptian investors to look at Angola as a great business opportunity, in the areas of agriculture, tourism, farming, fishing, industry in general, and not just in the extractive industry, concluded the Head of State.
