Last year the country ranked 69th, below countries like Sudan, Myanmar or Kazakhstan, but this year it overtook Argentina, Brazil, Greece and China.
"Angola has had a radical change in the last year. There are many more positive aspects to come, such as traditional culture and art. What Angola benefits now is a general positivity," Global Strategy Director Jon Tipple explained to the Lusa agency.
The "novelty factor" often benefits countries previously affected by civil war and political instability, but after these problems are solved, other reasons of interest stand out, such as culture and natural beauty, but also economic potential and socio-political values.
"The challenge now is to maintain and ensure that this perception is maintained: to maintain stability, demonstrate novelty, support tolerance, be seen as a good place to do business, to live or study and spend time," said Tipple during an event organized by the Foreign Press Association in the UK.
The FutureBrand Index takes a list of countries representing the 75 leaders in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to World Bank criteria, and ranks them according to their international image and reputation.
The ranking was made from a questionnaire to 2500 qualified professionals who travel frequently, scoring 18 attributes distributed by six categories (tourism, tradition and culture, quality of life, economic potential, socio-political values and original products).
"What we try to do is to understand the relationship between the way a country or a company is evaluated and recognized. Companies and countries with a strong alignment and a supportive relationship between value, be it GDP or market capitalization, and the way they are viewed around the world can be an interesting indicator of how they are prepared to grow," said Tipple.
Japan has maintained the first position since the index was launched in 2014, followed by Switzerland, Germany and Canada.
Portugal, 48th country in terms of GDP, climbed one place in the FutureBrand index, to 24th, while Brazil, the ninth largest economy in the world, dropped 10 places to 57th.
Despite a year marked by political tensions and criticism for the way they faced the covid-19 pandemic, the US (13th) and the UK (20th) remained in the top 20, repeating the strength of the international image, even during periods of crisis.
The index also revealed growing global confidence in Africa, with Angola, Algeria (34th) and Kenya (46th) among the top five countries since last year, and the Middle East, which saw the United Arab Emirates (9th) join the top 10 for the first time.
This year, respondents were asked about the covid-19 pandemic, and New Zealand was the country with the best perception in terms of effective measures to stop the coronavirus, followed by China and Germany.
