"So far, we have around 30 companies interested in participating in this year's edition of FILDA", revealed José Manuel Correia, chargé d'affaires at the Portuguese Embassy in Angola, in an interview with Jornal Economia e Finanças.
Speaking to the same newspaper, the official stressed that there is "a group of companies already present in the market, such as Petrotec and Quinta dos Jugais, but also companies that will be present at FILDA for the first time, with the intention of identifying new businesses", also mentioning that "with great satisfaction, that, also for the first time, Portuguese higher education institutions will be present at FILDA".
"This bet is clearly a testament to confidence in this market and in this country," he added.
He also said that Portugal's presence in this event "has been growing in the last three editions" and explained that in last year's edition, Portugal's presence translated "in the participation of companies that were already in the market".
"This year, by comparison, in addition to these companies, we will have another 14 companies expressly coming from Portugal. This is a sign of the importance of Angola for Portuguese companies", he said.
In the interview with Jornal Economia e Finanças (available in full on the embassy's website), he also informed that the "presence of Portuguese companies in the event" encompasses several sectors that represent "the very presence of Portuguese companies in the Angolan market", stressing that they will companies in the agri-food, building materials, information technology and engineering sectors.
Regarding the field of disruptive technologies, he considered that companies in Portugal have an "excellent 'track-record'" in this area, noting that Portuguese knowledge in this field "has been present in the Angolan market for some time, through companies such as Novabase It's spring".
Figures from the FILDA organization, quoted by Jornal de Angola, indicated that by Friday around 500 participants had already confirmed their presence for the event.