According to the official, who was speaking in Luanda, during the presentation ceremony of the Saurimo Diamond Development Pole, the "essential goal" that he recognizes is not easy to achieve arises within the scope of the new diamond marketing policy and its regulation.
"It is indeed a huge challenge, it is not easy to reach 20 per cent of cutting, today we are perhaps cutting about 2 per cent of our production, it is insignificant and so to reach 20 per cent we will have to work hard", stated.
For Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, in the course of the sector's actions, this goal will be evident, admitting, however, that it "will not be reached in this and probably not in the next term", but, he insisted, "it is the challenge" that he intends to achieve.
Angola produces about 9 million carats of diamonds / year and about 90 percent production comes from the eastern Lunda Sul province, where the pole budgeted at US $ 77 million is being built.
The minister also considered that the covid-19 pandemic "further aggravated" the difficulties of the diamond industry, since "synthetic diamonds also make the activity of natural diamonds more difficult".
"And that requires more responsibility and work from us", urged the minister to the operators present at the ceremony.
Four diamond-cutting factories operate in Angola, all in Luanda, and at the Saurimo hub, which is scheduled for completion in November, is expected to bring together four more faceting factories.
According to the official, the four polishing factories under construction at the Saurimo pole, Lunda Sul, constitute "anchors of the project as guarantees for the materialization of the enterprise".
"And this infrastructure is being built in Saurimo, because it would not be easy to start polishing poles at the same time in several provinces," he explained.
The authorities estimate that the Saurimo Diamond Development Pole, an infrastructure that is being built in an area of more than 305 thousand square kilometers, should create about 5000 direct and indirect jobs.
