Benguela: The Minister of State for Economic Coordination, Jos© de Lima Massano, said on Thursday that Angola must continue to move towards its food sovereignty, given the impacts of the conflict in the Middle East on the national economy. Speaking in Benguela, during the meeting of the Executive's Economic Team with leaders of business associations in the province and the Business Technical Group, Jos© de Lima Massano highlighted the need to accelerate the strategy of shifting towards food sovereignty, at a time when the Middle East is going through an "unprecedented" conflict.
According to Angola Press News Agency, the government official also acknowledged that the national economy is growing resiliently, through the continuous commitment to increasing domestic production and reducing imports in favor of locally produced products. Therefore, Jos© de Lima Massano stated that the Executive has been adopting a set of measures to make the business environment more attractive. "We continue to attract, protect and retain investment (...). We have adopted measures to protect national production," he emphasized, responding to concerns from business leaders about the current business environment in the country.
In the context of protecting national production, the spokesperson made it clear that the Government is restricting imports in sectors of the economy where products are available on the domestic market. According to the official, this is, in practice, one of the ways that the authorities have found to protect companies and strengthen local productive capacity.
The Minister of State challenged companies and business associations to bridge the gap between the primary sector and the processing industry, in order to ensure that raw materials produced in the country serve the national industry. "The raw material is, in some cases, available, but it does not always find space for its transformation in our market, because we have situations where the option is to import for various reasons," he stressed.
Meanwhile, Jos© de Lima Massano argues that we must continue to look at the Angolan economy as a whole, from the beginning of the production chain to the final product that reaches consumers, from a perspective of maximum possible local integration. Just to illustrate, he highlighted the tomato sector, adding that processed products, for example, in the Catumbela Industrial Development Hub, such as ketchup, should and can use national raw materials.
"We have tomato producers in the country. Fortunately, here in Benguela, more precisely in Dombe Grande, a tomato processing unit was inaugurated two months ago," he highlighted, emphasizing the idea of integrating the production chain. According to Jos© de Lima Massano, "this has to be the direction," insofar as the measures to protect national production that are being taken have precisely the purpose of creating more opportunities for everyone.
This is how the government official believes that companies become stronger, creating jobs to generate income to improve the living conditions of citizens. The Minister of State for Economic Coordination stressed that this is the sense of collaboration that the Government wants to see reinforced whenever possible. He also took the opportunity to renew the Executive's commitment to continue working with economic operators throughout the country to boost development.
"Our commitment is no longer just words. It is what we are actually doing, and today we have the Government's Economic Team here in force in Benguela with the economic operators of the province," he highlighted, concluding that the message for all economic operators in the country is that "we must be able to transform and create an Angola for all." The visit of the Economic Team of the Council of Ministers, focusing on assessing the damage caused by the heavy rains in Benguela, centered on the Catumbela Industrial Development Hub (PDIC), where four manufacturing units were inspected, showing significant material losses due to the flooding, they suffered.
This visit also aimed to present to the companies affected by the natural disasters ways to access the 30 billion kwanzas credit line approved by the Executive to support the recovery of economic activity both in Benguela and in the provinces of Bi©, Hula and Cunene, which were also affected by the storms. Attended by the provincial governor of Benguela, Manuel Nunes Jºnior, the meeting of the Executive's Economic Team, at the end of the field visit to the PDIC, included the participation of representatives from the Benguela Business Alliance, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Fisheries, and the Livestock Breeders Cooperative.
