Day: July 28, 2021

Luanda – Diamond production in the country from January to April of this year totalled 3.1 million carats, or 34 percent, the director of the Planning and Statistics Office of the Ministry for Mineral Resources, Alexandre Garrett said Wednesday.

Taking into account the situation experienced due to the Covid-19 pandemic, amongst others, the official, who was speaking at the Banking and Mining Forum, said that the figure presented was reasonable.

In his opinion, the country will continue to support producers to increase production of that ore, with a view to reaching a production target of 9.4 million kilos of diamonds by 2022.

The National Development Plan (PDN/2018- 2022) establishes, for the mining sector, several objectives that are linked to diamonds, gold, ornamental rocks, dolomitic limestone, among others.

On the occasion, the chairperson of the board of directors of the Geological Institute of Angola (IGA), Canga Xaquivuila, stressed that his institution exists to, among other objectives, enhance and value the important mineral resources of the country.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – The chairperson of the Turkish Council for Foreign Economic Relations (DEIK), Nail Olpak, announced Wednesday in Ankara an increase in trade with Angola, estimated at USD 500 million.

Speaking at the Business Forum between the two countries, Olpak said that the balance of trade between the two states was USD178 million, which was less than desired.

He acknowledged that bilateral trade between the Angolans and Turks still did not show the real potential of the two countries, hence the need to boost investments.

“We are going to be responsible for that,” he said, noting that companies from his country had already invested over USD800 million in Angola in various projects.

He said that he believed the two states could do much more in the field of investment.

“We are friends, but bilateral trade does not show our potential,” he expressed, stressing that the agreements signed on Tuesday, as part of the state visit by Angolan President João Lourenço to Turkey, were very important.

He also requested facilities for acquiring visas for Angola in order to increase the presence of Turkish investors, and showed interest in steel exploration.

In his turn, Turkey’s Trade minister, Mehmet Mus, said that the forum would help to consolidate relations with Angola, in particular, and Africa, in general.

He said that his country gave great importance to the African continent, where it had invested, by 2013, a total of USD 5 billion, which had risen to USD 25 billion by 2021.

He said that Turkish construction companies had already invested USD 70 billion in projects in Africa, stressing his country’s desire to continue boosting trade with Angola.

In view of the existing potential in Angola and Turkey, he said he believed the two countries would reach the new goals in a very short time, and welcomed the invitation from the Angolan President to his Turkish counterpart to visit the country.

He expressed the desire of his country’s businesspeople to invest in building hospitals, ports, roads and airports in Angola, which he believed would be made easier with the start of direct flights by Turkish Airlines to Luanda.

In his turn, Angola’s Transport Minister, Ricardo de Abreu, said, in response to the questions from Turkish businesspeople, that Angola was interested in developing the shipbuilding industry, and regretted the fact that there was nothing concrete in that area.

He announced that a project is currently being developed for the Porto Amboim region, in Cuanza Sul province, where it is planned to create a maritime and port infrastructure.

This, he said, would focus on developing naval capacity, for maintenance and construction. “We have every interest and are fully available,” he told dozens of Turkish businesspeople taking part in the business forum.

Also present at the event, the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, Manuel Nunes Júnior, noted that Angola’s main focus was to create an economy that grows in a sustainable and sustained way, or in other words, that does not depend solely on exports.

However, he said that the country needed to create infrastructures to ensure development with efficiency of private investment, and noted that Turkey’s Exin Bank had announced a funding line to help Turkish investors in Angola.

“This is a very important element, because it will make life easier for Turkish businesspeople in their investments in Angola, in this area of infrastructures, and contribute to the country having the necessary conditions for regular private investment,” he said.

According to the Minister of State, public companies are very welcome in this area, not only in the creation of infrastructures, but also in others linked to the creation of goods and services.

The Angola-Turkey Business Forum was one of the high points of the working day of President João Lourenço, who for two days worked with the Turkish authorities, with a view to re-launching cooperation and identifying new strategic partnerships.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

A scientist says fossils she collected from an ancient seabed in the mountains of northwestern Canada may be the earliest evidence of animal life on Earth ever discovered.

In a study published Wednesday in the science journal Nature, Laurentian University geologist Elizabeth Turner detailed how she found fossilized three-dimensional structures that resemble modern sponge skeletons in thin sections of rocks taken from the remnants of a prehistoric ocean reef.

Turner said the surrounding rock was 890 million years old, which would make the fossils she discovered about 350 million years older than the oldest undisputed sponge fossils previously found.

Many scientists believe Earth’s first animal groups included simple, soft sponges or sponge-like creatures that lack muscles and nerves but have other features of simple animals, including cells with differentiated functions. But scientists often disagree on specifically what the earliest animal life might have looked like.

Turner’s discovery will be carefully vetted by other scientists, and it has been greeted with excitement and skepticism.

Paleobiologist Graham Budd of Sweden’s Uppsala University told The New York Times the problem was the 350 million-year gap between Turner’s discovery and the next most recently discovered fossil. “It would be sensational. It would be like finding a computer chip in a 14th-century monastery,” he said.

Turner herself told the Times she could be wrong. But other researchers said her study was important.

University of Southern California paleobiologist David Bottjer said he thought Turner had a pretty strong case. “I think this is very worthy of publishing – it puts the evidence out there for other people to consider,” he said.

Source: Voice of America

Luanda – Turkish Airlines’ operations on the Istanbul-Luanda route will officially open in October this year, Transport Minister Ricardo de Abreu announced in Ankara on Wednesday.

The operator intends, initially, to carry out weekly flights on the Istanbul-Luanda route, aiming at boosting cooperation between the two states and peoples.

According to the minister, who was speaking to the press on the sidelines of the Angola/Turkey Business Forum, the initiative is part of a memorandum to be signed between Turkish Airlines and Angolan Airline (TAAG), on a code-sharing basis.

The Angolan official said that this sharing will make it possible for passengers, from Luanda, to have access in a single mode or single ticket to the connection to Istanbul or to the Turkish Arlines route network and vice-versa, benefiting from a connection to the Angolan capital.

“We think that it is a very positive agreement for the two countries and for the two airlines, but, above all, because it is the first step for us to open the paths of this strategic cooperation announced here by the two Presidents,” he expressed.

In relation to ticket costs, the Minister said that it is up to his ministry only to ensure the existence of a high level of competitiveness for the country.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

PHILADELPHIA – Four Washington Nationals players and eight staffers have tested positive for COVID-19, forcing Major League Baseball to postpone their game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night.

The postponement came one day after Nationals star Trea Turner exited the game against Philadelphia in the first inning following his positive test for the virus.

Washington manager Dave Martinez said Turner was among four players who tested positive. He didn’t identify the others.

The Nationals-Phillies matchup was scheduled to be made up as part of a doubleheader on Thursday starting at 12:05 p.m.

This was the ninth MLB game called off this year because of coronavirus concerns. The Nationals had their season-opening series at home against the New York Mets called off because of virus issues.

MLB announced the Nationals-Phillies postponement about 90 minutes before the game was set to begin at Citizens Bank Park and said the time would allow for “continued testing and contact tracing involving members of the Nationals organization.”

There were 45 MLB games postponed because of the virus last year during the pandemic-shortened season. All but two of them were eventually made up.

Source: Voice of America