The plan to reorganize trade in Luanda, promoted by the Government of this province, led to the closure of dozens of warehouses, almost a month ago, in the urban and peri-urban area of Luanda, prompting the indignation of the 'zungueiras' (street vendors), who protested against the measure in downtown.
Minister Victor Fernandes applauded the measure: "We have no doubts that we need to reorganize our commercial activity", he said, during a meeting with journalists.
"Nobody, among us, prefers the commercial confusion we have, we prefer that there is no confusion", he stressed, referring that the closure of commercial establishments is part of this process, criticized by operators who complain of "big losses".
"What happened now, I don't think it was that disruptive, it's obvious that those who are in the business prefer never to close, but I have note that they have already started to reopen the warehouses and I don't think that this is a problem at this stage", he noted.
The commercial zone of São Paulo, the preferential zone of thousands of 'zungueiras', in the district of Sambizanga, of Hoji-Ya-Henda, municipality of Sambizanga, Gajajeira, and Mercado das Pedrinhas, district of Rangel, are some of the areas where they were closed several warehouses.
According to the authorities, the measure also aims to stop disorderly sales, especially on public roads.
Victor Fernandes, who was speaking in the space "Dialogue with the Minister", also referred that the law on commercial activities "establishes very clearly that wholesale sales cannot be carried out in urban areas".
The process counts "fortunately, with a lot of cooperation from the operators of the commercial sector and the urban spaces should absorb only the retail trade", he pointed out.
The balance of actions carried out by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 guided the communication by the head of the ministerial department.
On the problem of importing products from the basic basket, the official stressed that Angola consumes a lot of cooking oil, defending the need to import only the raw material for the consequent local refining.
The installed industrial capacity for the production of edible oil, "for example, is greater than the market need", he said, considering: "Now what we have to do is take this installed capacity and force them to produce here".
"By the way, what I'm saying here is a problem, because imports are still very large, because we actually didn't have that installed capacity and we needed to reduce import capacity", he concluded.
