Author: anadmin

Luanda – MPLA President João Lourenço has stressed the deeds achieved by the government, backed by his party, which over four years of performance managed to build and rebuild several infrastructures that gave a new impetus to the country’s development.

João Lourenço was addressing a mass rally aimed to launch the pre-electoral campaign held in Cabinda province on Saturday, as part of his three-day visit to the region.

The leader highlighted the infrastructure in the education and health sectors, as well as the creation of more jobs in the same areas sectors.

He stressed the construction of 79 hospital units, fully equipped, of categories I, II and III, with a capacity for 32,619 inpatient beds.

He spoke of 12 satellite cities, as well as the creation of the first solar panel park (of 2,590 mega watts), in the province of Benguela.

The MPLA leader also highlighted the implementation of the Public Investment Programme (PIP) and the Integrated Plan for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM). The last one has 2,768 projects, 473 of which have already been completed.

PIIM successes

This programme, he said, which cost 2 billion dollars, of which 500 million has already been spent, is performing great miracle within the communities, in favour of their development.

On the occasion, the MPLA president slammed the opposition for having contested, from the outset, the execution of the PIIM.

João Lourenço said the opposition was well aware of the value of this programme for the country’s development.

However, he stated that the opposition seems not to want the government to solve the people’s problems.

He also referred to the construction of new water abstraction and distribution systems in various parts of the country, with stress to the Cafu project, in Cunene province.

The newly inaugurated project has a 165-kilometer canal and 31 dams for the storage of 930 cubic meters of water, as well as the reintegration of 12,388 former soldiers.

Fighting drought and building hospitals

He also announced the execution, in the near future, of a project estimated at 4.5 billion dollars for the definitive resolution of the drought problem in the country, as well as the construction of the first pharmaceutical industry in Angola, without monopolies.

In addition, he said that more hospital units were being built in the provinces of Bengo, Cuanza Sul, Cuanza Norte, Cunene, Huambo and Lunda Norte, as well as the recruitment of another 24,000 health professionals over the next three years.

Cabinda towards development

In his speech, in which he received plaudits, João Lourenço began by highlighting the various investments made in the province of Cabinda, and at the same time, announced the construction of the first local refinery, with a refining capacity of 30,000 barrels a day, as well as the new airport.

He said he was pleased with what he saw in Cabinda, stressing that the province is following the path of development, “a sign that the State’s financial resources are being well spent”.

In the economic field, the MPLA leader highlighted the fact that, in the last four years, the Executive has made a correction to end the absolute dependence on oil revenues and have encouraged the non-oil sector to grow and develop more agricultural production and agri-livestock.

He also highlighted that the diversification of the economy today is a reality in Angola.

Elections

João Lourenço, who announced the handover, in the coming days, of the headquarters of the National Electoral Commission (CNE) and the National Scrutiny Center, appealed to other political parties to prepare for the task ahead.

He also highlighted the fact that, for the first time in history, the residents abroad could exercise its constitutional right in the general elections in August this year.

Party motto

João Lourenço took the opportunity to launch his party’s motto for 2022-2027, “More ambition, audacity in the search for solutions to the people’s problems to achieve progress and development”.

In his view, the party needs to be bolder and have greater ambition, because “it was ambition and audacity that made us build the Cafu Canal, in just over two years.”

Source: Angola Press News Agency

The 2022 Asian Games in China will go ahead, the Olympic Council of Malaysia said Saturday, denying claims that it was facing the possibility of being postponed.

The Olympic-sized event is scheduled to be held in September in Hangzhou, a major metropolitan area less than 200 kilometers southwest of Shanghai.

Shanghai is currently grappling with a major coronavirus emergency, with its roughly 25 million residents currently in a weeks-long lockdown as authorities try to curb an omicron-fueled wave.

An official working with governing body the Olympic Council of Asia, who did not want to be named, had told AFP on Thursday that no decision had been made but there was a possibility of postponement.

However, Olympic Council of Malaysia president Norza Zakaria disputed that.

“The Asian Games 2022 in China is going ahead,” he told AFP Saturday. “We have checked with OCA (the Olympic Council of Asia) and the organizing committee.”

Most international sports events have been on hold in China since the COVID-19 pandemic, although Beijing hosted the Winter Olympics in a strict bio-bubble in February.

Right after the Olympics ended, Shanghai — China’s biggest city — witnessed the country’s worst COVID outbreak in two years, and its residents have largely been confined to their homes since early April.

All 56 competition venues for the Games in Hangzhou have already been completed, Chinese organizers said this month, promising to publish a virus control plan that takes its cue from the Winter Olympics.

Hangzhou is scheduled to hold the Games from Sept. 10-25, becoming the third Chinese host after Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.

Source: Voice of America

Cabinda – President of the Republic João Lourenço left Cabinda province Saturday back to Luanda, after a three-day working visit to that region.

On the first day of the visit (21), in the northernmost province of the country, João Lourenço inaugurated the General Hospital of Cabinda, with a capacity for 200 beds.

On the same day, the Head of State met with members of the provincial government of Cabinda and held separate meetings with members of civil society.

On the second day (22), the President visited Malongo oil field, where he made contact with the “Lifua A” oil platform, under construction in that region.

During the visit, the head of State opened the Passenger Maritime Terminal in Cabinda on Friday.

The Head of State has carried out work visits to the provinces aimed to assess the level of implementation of the various socio-economic projects aimed to improving the conditions of the populations and development of the country.

Before leaving Cabinda, João Lourenço, as leader of the ruling MPLA party, presided over a mass rally, which marked this Saturday (23) the launch of the pre-election campaign of the ruling party in that province.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

The major financial hub of Shanghai reported 12 new COVID-19 related deaths on April 22, up from 11 the previous day, as frustrations among residents continued to boil over amid a harsh lockdown and strict censorship online.

The city, battling China’s biggest coronavirus outbreak so far, recorded 20,634 new local asymptomatic infections on Friday, rebounding from 15,698 a day earlier. Total new symptomatic cases reached 2,736, up from 1,931 on April 21, official data showed.

The patients who died had an average age of 88, the Shanghai government said. All had underlying health conditions, and none had been vaccinated.

“One strategy that needs immediate implementation is to increase rates of the booster vaccination dose to the elderly and other vulnerable groups and to see if mRNA vaccines can be used,” said Jaya Dantas, a public health expert at the Curtin School of Population Health in Australia, who is monitoring the Shanghai outbreak.

China has yet to introduce its own mRNA vaccines and has chosen not to import those developed overseas.

In a study published by China’s Disease Prevention and Control Center on Friday, medical experts in the northeastern city of Jilin, the location of another recent outbreak, said China’s vaccines have been effective so far, though new emerging COVID-19 variants remained unpredictable.

They said, “the data is strong enough to indicate the public significance of the strategy of full and booster vaccination, particularly for the elder population.”

Pressures mounting

Though frustrations continued to bubble over in Shanghai’s sealed off residential compounds, local officials maintain there will be no relaxation until new cases outside of quarantine areas have all been cleared.

“The more critical the period becomes, the more we need to grit our teeth and focus our strength,” Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng was quoted as saying on Shanghai’s official government WeChat channel late on Friday.

The number of cases outside quarantine areas stood at 218 on Friday, down from 250 the previous day.

Shanghai’s full-city lockdown began at the start of April, though many residents have been confined to their homes for much longer.

But even after shutting down for more than 30 days, some compounds are still reporting new cases, casting doubt on the efficacy of China’s approach.

“This is a significant amount of time and does have mental health impacts: people are exhausted and frustrated,” said Dantas.

On social media, netizens battled against censors overnight to share a six-minute video entitled “The Voice of April”, a montage of voices recorded over the course of the Shanghai outbreak.

Panning across Shanghai’s silent skyscrapers, the video consists of residents complaining about the lack of food and medicine, as well as the heavy-handed tactics of city authorities.

All direct references to the film were removed from the Weibo microblogging service by Saturday morning, though some comments criticizing the censorship survived.

“I can only say that if you don’t even want to listen to just a small amount of real voices, then it is really hopeless,” said one.

Source: Voice of America