The independent body, coordinated by the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP), is composed of 40 institutions, mostly from civil society, including professional associations, cooperatives, universities, unions and 17 ministerial bodies.
According to the authorities, the OEI aims to be a broad forum for articulation, consultation and permanent social dialogue on the formalization of Angola's informal economy, with the mission of drawing up measures in this regard.
The Secretary of State for the Economy, who spoke at the opening of the first constituent meeting, referred to data published in 2018 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) that reported that about 72.6 percent of the economically active in Angola had an informal job.
"These are the current data we are working with and the executive, naturally through the PREI [Program for the Reconversion of the Informal Economy], and its launch at the level of the 18 provinces, is developing actions to reduce the levels of informality in our economy", said Dalva Ringote.
The OEI, "which is an organ for consultation and consultation between the public and private sector and non-governmental and cooperative organizations, is an important body because it has the responsibility to guarantee, assist in the formalization and monitoring of policies for actions aimed at formalizing ", she said.
This body must also prepare studies, "because the academy is also incorporated in this body, which has the function of presenting concrete studies to help policies aimed at formalization, which has the function of ensuring that the entire process runs smoothly".
Dalva Ringote said she is certain that the members of the OEI "will be able to contribute to ensuring that the policy of formalizing economic activity is carried out and we will continue to work in search of tangible results in the course of concertation actions".
"Today is the creation of the secretariat, which will be formally elected, and, therefore, the continuity of the process of formalizing the activity that will take place in the country will deserve attention from this important formalization body", she assured.
She recalled that the PREI, officially launched on November 16, 2021, should reach the 164 Angolan municipalities: "And the actions leading to materialization are underway".
"We hope to have the operational plan prepared in the near future, so that we can continue the process of formalizing the economic activity of the municipalities", concluded the Secretary of State.
The OEI's constituent executive secretary, Elsa Sarmento, reported that the body must approve this Tuesday a set of normative aspects, referring that the forum, despite being coordinated by the MEP, was endowed with "technical, scientific and administrative autonomy".
In this sense, "it is the first observatory of governmental initiative created in this way as a truly independent forum where the different organizations are on an equal footing in a discussion with 17 public institutions, totaling 40 entities".
"In a large family that intends to debate the socio-economic well-being and the process of formalizing the economy in order to promote social cohesion and increase the socio-economic development of Angola", said Elsa Sarmento.
The Government announced last week that it had formalized around 200,000 informal operators with the implementation, seven months ago, of the PREI and made available 2.6 billion kwanzas in microcredit.
According to the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, Manuel Nunes Júnior, most of the operators removed from the informal circuit are women, especially young people between 15 and 40 years old.
