João Lourenço, who spoke at the opening of the 5th edition of the Fair of Municipalities and Cities of Angola, which drew in Benguela, stating that these two infrastructures should take Angola out of the dependence on oil refined imports, especially diesel and gasoline.
According to the president, the Cabinda Refinery is an important infrastructure for the development of that oil -producing province and the country in general.
The Cabinda Refinery, whose works began in 2017, will have the initial refining capacity of 30,000 barrels of oil per day.
The country spent more than $ 660 million on fuel imports in the first quarter of 2025, having imported 73 percent less than in the last quarter of 2024, according to official data.
In his intervention, the President of the Republic increased that each municipality is a territorial space where the solution of some of the problems that most affect the Angolans should be found, “such as the supply in housing, employment and greater diversification of the production of goods and services, especially food goods of the basic basket”.
“May it be a sample of our will, our hope and our certainty that Angola will win,” said João Lourenço.
The head of state pointed out that in the first quarter of this year, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 5.4 percent, with a “remarkable contribution from the food production segment”, producing about nine million tons of food during this period, stressing that “this effort should be made in all sectors of the economy, without exception”.
According to João Lourenço, the workforce must be more productive, work harder, generate more and better results, surpass barriers to private investment, continue to bureaucracy, administrative activity, deconcentrate more tasks for local state administration bodies and provide them with more human and financial resources.
For João Lourenço, today the bet on knowledge, agriculture and industry “are the right way to generate hope and prosperity for families and increase employment opportunities, especially for young people, but also to ensure the country's food sovereignty, as well as for the balance of payments.
"This is why we look with great optimism projects such as the Lobito corridor, which begins here in Benguela province. More than a railway, it is a great driving spring and the opportunity to develop the communities that are located along the Benguela Way," said the president.
The corridor of Lobito, added João Lourenço, “is an asset of regional integration strategy”, with potential that does not run out at the Angolan borders, so it should continue to deserve the attention of the executive, appealing to the “ingenuity and insight” of the public and private business sector to boost economic development, with emphasis on the sectors of agriculture, industry, mining and tourism.
João Lourenço stressed the increase in foreign interest in this infrastructure, highlighting the recent announcement of the European Union to provide a financial package to reinforce investment in the areas of trade, vocational training, transportation and heritage, emphasizing that the largest slice of such financing will be channeled for professional technical education.
