During a session of the 15th International Forum on Investment and Infrastructure Construction, taking place in Macau, the government official described the participation of Chinese investment in Angola as "indispensable".
According to official data, Angola reached an installed capacity of 6200 megawatts (MW) in 2023, an increase of 60 percent over the 2400 MW that the country generated in 2015.
But "investment in energy generation in Angola is still predominantly public", admitted Borges.
On May 10, the president of the Angolan Renewable Energy Association, Vítor Fontes, said that only 25 MW of the current installed capacity results from private investment and pointed out the current energy tariff price as too low to attract investors.
João Baptista Borges recalled, this Thursday, that the country's Energy Sector Action Plan 2023-2027 envisages reaching an installed generation capacity of nine thousand MW by 2027, as well as an electrification rate of 50 percent of the country.
On May 10, the Secretary of State for Energy, Arlindo Bota, estimated that it is necessary to invest around 12 billion dollars to achieve this electrification rate.
Financial institutions and the private sector are "called to play an important role in achieving this objective", added, this Thursday, João Baptista Borges.
The minister described the energy sector as "an opportunity of common interest for financing direct Chinese investment projects", particularly through public-private partnerships and between companies from Angola and China.
Borges argued that energy generation in Angola is "a market opportunity given the country's industrial potential, its regional economic integration, as well as its internal consumption potential".
The official highlighted the signing of a bilateral agreement on reciprocal investment protection between Angola and China, during the visit to Beijing by the President, João Lourenço, in March.
The head of state said at the time that he also managed, together with Chinese state banks EximBank and ICBC, to extend the deadline for disbursing financing for the construction of the Caculo Cabaça hydroelectric dam, in the center-north of the country.
