"Angola is experiencing a perfect storm", with three crises, the one that was already taking place, that of oil and that of the covid-19 pandemic, said Marques Mendes, who participated as a partner at Abreu Advogados in the webinar with the theme "Covid-19, Challenges and Opportunities for the Economy of Angola", an online conversation promoted by Banco BAI - African Investment Bank.
In this context, he defended that "a solution that is worth reflecting on and debating is the idea of why Angola should not move forward with PPP - public-private partnerships".
In practice, they are partnerships between the State and private groups that "at a time when the State has difficulty in having resources to invest or (...) to create financial incentives" can be "an opportunity to make investment today, do work today, dynamize the economy and create jobs ", he stressed, paying the State a part of this investment.
"Of course, Angola has a need to reduce imports, because this is a problem associated with the lack of foreign exchange and therefore the need to invest in areas such as agriculture, agro-industry and manufacturing industries and also to alleviate its situation", said, but has "above all the need to invest", he stressed, in an intervention in which he criticized the International Monetary Fund's lack of sensitivity to microeconomics and in relation to the specificities of the countries, referring to the IMF's intervention in Angola, but also in Portugal.
In addition to this PPP solution, Abreu Advogados' partner and political analyst also considered that privatizations in Angola could be, in the middle of a triple crisis, "a good opportunity".
"The privatization process, which is just beginning, can also be a good opportunity. We [in Portugal] have had situations of this nature here for years. I do not know if it is so much the question of financial inclusion, but it is above all the opportunity to State to be able to withdraw from some sectors where it does not have a great vocation to intervene ", considered the State councilor.
But privatizations are also, in the opinion of Marques Mendes, "an opportunity to have companies with greater efficiency" - and also the opportunity to attract foreign investment ", which" was important "for Portugal and" may also be important for Angola at this stage ".
The webinar "Covid-19, Challenges and Opportunities for the Economy of Angola" also included the participation of the associate professor at the Catholic University of Angola, Manuel Alves da Rocha, the journalist and economist Carlos Rosado de Carvalho and Paulo Pinto de Andrade, CEO of Vovó Xica; José Moniz da Silva, CEO of Moniz Silva International, by Elizabeth dos Santos, CEO of Fazenda Pérola do Kikuxi, and Luís Lelis, CEO of BAI.
