João Lourenço was speaking to the press at the end of his visit on Monday to Textang II textile factory, in Cazenga municipality, Luanda province.
The Head of State stressed that it is unsustainable to feed textile industries with the import of raw material.
"Feeding industries of this dimension relying only on imports is not correct, hence the fact that the very companies that won the tender for the concession of these three units are the first ones to promote the national production of cotton", João Lourenço said.
According to the Head of State, Textang II has already managed to mobilize about 1000 peasants, from the province of Malanje, who have started the process of cotton production.
"All the cotton producers who do this have their product guaranteed to be sold, either this unit or the other two will buy all the cotton that is produced in our country. Just this guarantee, I believe is enough to encourage the farmers and ranchers, why not, not only the farmers, but the families, to dedicate themselves to this type of culture, which is not strange to Angola, since the country, in a relatively recent past, was already a great cotton producer", said the President.
The Head of State underlined that about two years ago he visited the same place, when the factory was not yet operating, and was pleased that it is now in operation.
"I was here approximately two years ago, when this unit was still not working, and what we said, at the time, is that we would make every effort to put, not only this unit of Cazenga, but also the ones of Benguela and Dondo, working, for obvious reasons, since, as we know, they are huge public investments that were made in these three units, which, lamentably, were closed for many years", he pointed out.
João Lourenço emphasized that the factories are not yet fully operational, but the "volume of production is increasing as time goes by and with this the number of jobs is also increasing.
"In making this visit today, the feeling could not be other than one of great satisfaction," he said.
Textang II was privatized in 2020, and the winner of the public tender was the Angolan company Investimentos e Participações IEP, which has the management of the plant for eight years and may acquire it from the State at the end of the contract.
