Tag: Angola

China’s support to Angola following the Angolan President’s recent visit to Beijing reached US$6 billion, João Lourenço said in a recent interview with Portuguese weekly newspaper Expresso.

Brazil, Mozambique and Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) have fallen back a few places in the latest edition of the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum, in which Angola is in the lowest position among Portuguese-speaking countries.

Angola obtained additional funding of US$2 billion from China, less than the US$11 billion sought, as China became more prudent in its lending to the African nation.

Economic relations with Africa have been losing importance for Brazil’s governments, which ignore the continent’s potential, unlike China and other emerging economies, according to the Brazil-Africa Institute.

Macau’s Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU) is looking to increase support for the more than 40,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the territory, said Carlos Cid Álvares, the bank’s chief executive told the Tribuna de Macau newspaper.

The World Economic Forum last year forecast that Angola, alongside Mozambique, would be among the ten fastest growing leisure tourism destinations worldwide over the next decade.

The Angolan government has approved the creation of a National Council of Public Works (CNOP) to coordinate major state works, replacing other existing structures under Presidential Decree No. 202/18, which came into force on 31 August.

Logistics and Distribution Centres, with a central role in wholesale and retail supply and price formation, are open to the private sector in Angola, under new legislation already in force.

Credit granted by Chinese banks will support the financing needs of the Angolan State Budget for this year, which should signal a multi-level policy shift for the country, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Since China became Africa’s largest trading partner in 2009, trade has continued to flourish, aided by cooperative frameworks put in place by the Chinese government and its African counterparts. The momentum is expected to build over the medium term, and the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation in September is likely to help ensure that these increasingly close economic ties become even closer.

Five of the six Portuguese-speaking African countries are on the list of 44 states that have subscribed to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) project, which received a generally positive reception from civil society.

Trade between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries has increased 11-fold since Forum Macau was set up in 2003, and the Forum has played a “very important role” in Chinese globalisation, said China’s Deputy Minister of Commerce.

China’s foreign aid has tripled in the past decade and has been boosted in recent years by contributions to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), according to a new study recently conducted by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The growing adoption of China’s currency by central banks was advocated at a forum on foreign reserve management in Southern Africa held in Harare, Zimbabwe, with the participation of 14 countries in the region, including Angola and Mozambique.

China’s direct investment in Portuguese-speaking countries has reached US$$50 billion, Macau Forum Secretary-General Xu Yingzhen said in an interview with local Portuguese-language newspaper Tribuna de Macau.

Angola and Mozambique, the two largest Portuguese-speaking African economies, are facing high short-term economic and political challenges, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index (BTI 2018).

São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea Bissau and Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), the three smallest Portuguese-speaking African economies, are expected to see economic growth in 2018 well above the average for the sub-Saharan Africa region, according to the latest forecast from the International Monetary Fund.

Business projects involving China and Portuguese-speaking countries have been receiving official Chinese funding, but the deepening of this cooperation in the “era” of the New Silk Road requires innovative financial mechanisms, the president of the Fund for Cooperation and Development between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries said in Lisbon.

A set of measures to promote business tourism in Angola is being introduced, facilitating access to the country and domestic transport, as part of government efforts to stimulate the economy, according to the latest report from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Since China became Africa’s largest trading partner in 2009, trade has continued to climb, helped by cooperative frameworks put in place by the Chinese government and its African counterparts. The momentum is expected to build over the medium term, and the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in September is likely to help ensure that these increasingly close economic ties become even closer.