Menongue - River navigation on rivers can be an alternative to raising revenues to leverage the economic and social development of the province of Cuando Cubango.
This assessment was made by the deputy governor for the Political, Social and Economic sectors of Cuando Cubango, Helena Chimena, at the end of a meeting with the delegate of the Captaincy of the Port of Namibe, Captain Camatá Chinhama, who is in the province, in order to verify the levels of functionality and needs of the sector.
For Helena Chimena, river activity is of great importance, as it brings benefits to the populations and economic agents in the riverside municipalities of the province of Cuando Cubango, especially Cuangar, Calai, Dirico, Nancova and Rivungo, which face difficulties in road traffic, due to the poor condition of the roads.
She defended the improvement of the conditions of the vessels, to improve the working conditions of the fiscal agents, boosting the river transport of people and goods, especially in the municipalities crossing the border with the localities of Zambia and Namibia.
For the vice-governor, the rivers are an important alternative to improve the inspection of smuggled products and tax evasion that daily cause losses to the State.
Captain Camatá Chinhamade explained that his mission is to maintain operational means and facilitate the transport of people and goods, hence he is accompanied by a navigation engineer to understand the technical status of the 11 vessels.
Preliminary information indicates that four of them are inoperative.
He said that on Tuesday they will travel to the municipality of Rivungo, with the aim of inventorying the means of navigation, ports and bridges for docking and disembarking goods and passenger boats, to be revitalized.
Angola and Zambia are countries with great commercial activity, capable of reverting to great gains for the populations at all levels, especially in the creation of jobs and tax revenues, said the captaincy officer, who hopes that river navigation will boost this goal.
In addition to the municipality of Rivungo, during their stay in the province of Cuando-Cubango, the captaincy's technicians go to Dirico and Cuangar. LMZ/FF/MS/DOJ