Angola’s Private Investment and Export Promotion Agency plans to make China its priority export Market and wants to increase domestic production, namely through foreign investment.
Speaking at the Angola-China Business Forum on Agriculture and Fisheries, via video conference, AIPEX director, Sandra Dias dos Santos estimated Chinese investment in the country totalled USD 200 million since 2018.
She added that between 2018 and 2020, 14 investments were made in the industrial sector, worth USD 190.1 million, three in trade, worth USD 8.2 million, one in agriculture, worth USD 6.5 million, one in construction, worth USD 550,000 and two in services, worth USD 250,000.
Dos Santos noted that an investment protection agreement was being negotiated between Angola and China, that Angola’s Private Investment Law continued to improve and that a third investment regime in the country is being approved by parliament, allowing negotiation between major investors and the state.
“The Chinese market is, in the future, the priority market for national exports. We have to increase domestic production in order to export, but I believe that because of the size of the Chinese market we have to take advantage of that possibility. There is already some export to be done, but we believe there is much more that can be done,” she said.
Speaking at the event, Angolan Secretary of State for Fisheries, Esperança Costa, expressed interest in establishing partnerships with China for the construction of shipyards.
Costa also said that the Government of Angola chose as fundamental areas of cooperation with China in the fisheries sector, continental and marine commercial aquaculture, and that the country has “excellent conditions for this practice”.