Carlos dos Santos said that, during his visit to Macau, he reached an agreement with the Chinese state company China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) to move forward with the project.
"This highway, which is around 1400 kilometers long, will connect the southern part of Angola with neighboring Namibia, to the northern part of Angola, with the Democratic Republic of Congo", explained the official.
Carlos dos Santos said that the infrastructure will extend from the province of Cunene, in the south, to the provinces of Zaire and Cabinda, in the northwest of the country, and these two will be connected by a bridge.
The CRBC will begin studies "soon after" the formal signing of the memorandum of understanding, something that will happen during the China-Africa Cooperation Forum summit in Beijing, between September 3 and 8, said the minister.
The Chinese group is expected to complete studies and projects by "the middle or end of 2025", a stage in which it will invest "around 50 to 75 million dollars", explained Carlos dos Santos.
The government official said that only then will the two parties decide whether or not the investment, in a public-private partnership, will include a subsequent concession and installation of tolls, "a modality in which the private sector assumes greater responsibility".
Carlos dos Santos predicted "the start of effective construction of the work at the end of 2025 or 2026", with the works estimated at "anything like 2.5 billion dollars".
The project "will be a development corridor" that will bring Angola closer to "connected regions, such as Southern Africa, Central Africa and North Africa" and leave Angolans "better prepared for the challenges that lie ahead", defended the minister .
Carlos dos Santos was speaking on the sidelines of the Portuguese Language Engineers Forum, as part of the 15th International Forum on Investment and Infrastructure Construction, which ends this Friday in Macau.
The official also said that he invited the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute and the International Commercial Association for Lusophone Markets, based in the Chinese region, to send delegations to the Luanda International Fair, between 23 and 28 July.
The construction of Angola's first highway, in the north-south corridor, was already part of the Operational Plan for Structuring Public-Private Partnerships, announced in October 2020.
CRBC was the original contractor hired for the construction of Porto do Caio, in Cabinda, and was awarded, in 2019, one of the two contracts for the construction of a dam on the Cuvelai River, to mitigate the effects of the drought in the province of Cunene.
