João Neves, who is in Luanda on a working visit, highlighted the recovery of economic collaboration between Angola and Portugal this year, after two years considered very difficult, due to the pandemic.
"This year has been marked by a strong growth in relations. Both on the import and export side, we have a growth of around 50 percent compared to the previous year and the perspective we have is to continue to strengthen the collaboration between the two countries and the companies of both", said the Portuguese official.
Speaking after opening and visiting the new facilities of the ISQ APAVE group in Luanda, João Neves said that he is in Angola looking for solutions so that collaboration between Angola and Portugal, especially in the economic field, is "more intense".
"This is a working visit, we will certainly have opportunities (to sign agreements), depending on the work we are going to carry out from now on and have agreements signed in different areas over the next year", he stressed in statements to Lusa.
Portugal "strongly wants to strengthen the instruments for professional qualification in Angola, depending on the investment objectives that Portuguese companies may have in the country".
"And we certainly have a lot of investments that companies are considering in different areas so that this process of professional qualification has an effective materialization", he stressed.
More than 4000 Portuguese companies export products and services to Angola and have the "natural concerns" of a market with different characteristics from the European market, stressed the Portuguese Secretary of State.
"We have to deal with what is the economic environment and the perspective is to find solutions to the problems that exist. That was the feeling I found in conversations with the Portuguese companies that are here", he highlighted.
For the Portuguese official, the concerns of Portuguese companies in Angola are beyond overcome, with a strong recovery in the level of activity in the Angolan market for the coming years.
Portuguese companies should also invest, in the coming years, in areas that "possibly have not yet been the object of collaboration, such as the textile, clothing and footwear sector" and find solutions for the needs that Angola has in the domestic market, he said.
"We have a work program that will certainly allow us to increase collaboration in this area (the textile and footwear industry) which is still very limited", he said.
"We understand Angola's needs, we understand the Government's objectives, the investments that are being made and what we want is to collaborate in this process and make available to Angola what is a very strong experience of these sectors in Portugal that are among the most competitive in the world", noted João Neves.
The Secretary of State for the Economy of Portugal visited and inaugurated this Tuesday the new facilities of the ISQ APAVE group in Luanda, located at Rua Kima Kienda, in the Boavista neighborhood, in the urban district of Ingombota.
ISQ is a Portuguese company that has been operating in Angola for 20 years in partnership with the French company APAVE in the provision of services in the Angolan gas and oil and agro-industrial sector.
