Luanda - A Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreement between Angola and the European Union (EU) was approved today, Wednesday, by the Council of Ministers at its 9th Ordinary Session, chaired by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.
According to the Minister of Economy and Planning, Mário Caetano João, Angola is the first country with which the European Union has decided to sign this agreement, which aims to facilitate the attraction, expansion and retention of foreign direct investment between the parties, for the purposes of economic diversification and sustainable development.
The agreement also aims to prepare the Angolan market for foreign direct investment, improving the business environment, with technical assistance from the EU, and to ensure that all investments in this agreement guarantee environmental sustainability.
Minister, Mário Caetano João said that the agreement began to be negotiated in September 2020, with the signing scheduled for 17 November this year, on the occasion of the Business Forum between the two parties that will take place in the country.
As a benefit of the agreement, which has 8 chapters and 58 articles, he pointed to the guarantee of less dependence of the economy on natural resources, especially energy resources, the internationalisation of the national economy, with the intensification of business between the parties, so that Angola can move closer to the economic partnership agreement that several African countries have been signing, and an improvement in the local business environment.
When framing the parties, the Minister for the Economy and Planning, Mário Caetano João, said that Angola has at least 33 million inhabitants, with Angolan foreign direct investment in the European Union of around 3.5 billion euros, as well as the country exporting more than it imports from the EU, mainly oil sector products, valued at 13.3 billion euros in the last three years (2020, 2021 and 2022).
Angola has imported 11.6 billion euros from the EU in the last three years, which means that foreign direct investment is around 14.1 billion euros (2021), the EU's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 13.2 billion euros and it has a market of 341 million inhabitants. PA/AC/ADR/DAN/DOJ
