"Angola was already much more attractive to Brazilian businessmen, obviously, but there are some measures taken recently, and that is why Angola is a favorable country to receive private investment because of the new measures taken by the current government", said Raimundo Lima in an interview with Lusa, on the eve of the arrival of the Brazilian President, Lula da Silva, in Luanda for a two-day official visit.
According to the businessman, "there are cooperation and investment facilitation agreements, the issue of fund transparency, return on profits, all of this is now beginning to be better defined and are attractive factors".
For the official, João Lourenço's executive should take a set of measures to make the country more attractive to foreign investment.
"There are things to improve, the Government should create mechanisms for a faster creation of companies, it should avoid hindering the entry of Brazilians who want to invest here and also the regularization of the creation of companies, this needs to be increasingly observed so that we have greater facilitation and attractiveness", said the also president of the Association of Brazilian Entrepreneurs in Angola (AEBRAN).
Asked about the sectors where there are more opportunities for Brazilian businessmen to invest, Raimundo Lima highlighted agriculture and stressed that "the presence of President Lula da Silva and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation [Embrapa] will contribute a lot to an increase" in investments in this area.
Brazil has been a partner of Angola, but since 2015 the relationship has been more distant, with the suspension of loans from Brazil to Angola.
"The Brazilian government gave US$3.850 billion for various financing here, through the National Development Bank [BNDES] of the Export Financing Program (POEX) until 2015, but since then it has not received anything else; Angola has already paid all this debt that contracted, does not owe anything, the last amounts were paid in 2019, and the great expectation is that there is a restart of financing, and that a part is for small and medium-sized companies [SMEs]", said the businessman.
Created in June, the CCAB "has the main objective of promoting bilateral trade" and will be made official at a ceremony this weekend by the presidents of Brazil and Angola, who will unveil the official inauguration plaque, said Raimundo Lima.
The President of Brazil is visiting Angola this Friday and Saturday, accompanied by six ministers and 170 businessmen, one of the largest delegations ever, announced the Brazilian ambassador, Rafael Vidal, in Luanda, considering that this reflects "affection and security" in bilateral relations .
According to the diplomat, the Economic Forum taking place on Friday, as part of the official visit of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to Angola, will be attended by 500 businessmen, of which 170 come from Brazil.
This is the largest presence of Brazilian businessmen on Lula da Silva's visits abroad, "which is also a reflection not only of the affection that Brazil has for Angola, but also of the security that Brazil has in its relationship with Angola in different domains" , said the diplomat.
