The North American official, who is participating this Thursday and Friday in the 20th edition of the AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) commercial forum, in Johannesburg, told Lusa that the three-day visit to the Angolan capital, Luanda, from Monday, November 6th, aims to facilitate the diversification of "the entire Angolan economy".
"We have some large investments from US companies that are facilitated by the US Government, both in the port of Lobito, but also in solar energy and telecommunications, these are US-based companies that are working with the US Government to invest more in Angola, and the purpose of my trip is to understand what more we can do to facilitate stronger bilateral trade between the US and Angola and further diversify economic growth," she explained.
From the US official's perspective, President João Lourenço's executive "has taken on several fiscal and economic measures, implementing many economic reforms", but the US wants to be sure that these reforms "are truly benefiting the people of Angola, and that American companies can come and establish partnerships to provide the goods and services that Angolans need not only to meet their daily needs, but also to become a more prosperous country with a sustainable, inclusive and growing economic experience".
Joy Basu highlighted to Lusa that President Joe Biden's administration intends for "the ongoing US investment in Angola to continue to be implemented, including the Lobito corridor, but also to find more diverse opportunities to invest across the entire Angolan economy".
In addition to Angola, the project to develop the seaport of Lobito and the railway corridor with the same name aims to improve regional connections with the neighboring countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo) and Zambia.
"It includes the definition of hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, but it hopes to bring millions of dollars of trade to this region and really increase regional connectivity between these countries and through South Africa", he stressed, speaking to Lusa.
In the Angolan capital, the deputy assistant secretary of the US State Department's Office of African Affairs said she has scheduled meetings with the private sector and government officials, including the ministers of Commerce and Transport "to talk about what policies really create a business environment conducive to investing".
The United States announced last September, in Johannesburg, around one billion dollars for the multisectoral development of the Lobito logistics corridor to connect Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, in Southern Africa.
From the perspective of the United States Government, the new railway line connecting Zambia to the port of Lobito will be "the largest single investment by the US and the EU on the African continent in a generation", aiming to "unlock the enormous potential" that exists in the railway sector in sub-Saharan Africa.
