Luanda - Spanish investments in Angola has reached 518 million euros since 2018, placing the country in 49th place as a destination for its investments, said that country ambassador to Angola, Manuel María Lejarreta Lobo.
The diplomat announced the amount during an interview granted to Jornal de Angola (Angola’s state-run newspaper).
He said the amount results from the fact that more than 60 Spanish companies have been operating in Angola, in different sectors such as energy, banking, construction and agriculture.
The ambassador also referred to many Spanish companies developing projects in sectors such as water treatment, industrial refrigeration, health, education, training and geology.
Manuel María Lejarreta Lobo, on the other hand, said that “the good economic relations between the two countries became more evident when the Spain exported 87 million euros to Angola and imported goods worth 548 million euros” in 2020.
Angola, according to the diplomat, has become a strategic country for Spain's external growth in Africa.
The Foco Africa 2023 plan, he went on, will channel institutional support for investments by Spanish companies on the continent.
He added that with Angola and six other African countries, Spain intends to build different, more comprehensive relations, based on mutual cooperation, between Europe and Africa.
“But the Spanish plan is more ambitious and wants to become the European Union's reference country for the African continent”, he stressed.
In line with this plan, in August of this year, for example, said the ambassador, more than 600 passports were issued, when as a rule there are 4,000 to 4,500 visas per year, which make up a monthly average of 350 to 380, among tourists, workers and students.
As for the process of economic diversification, he said that Angola is following a very smart strategy, in which Spain can participate.
“We have strong potential in agro-industry and renewable energies, two areas in which we can cooperate a lot. There is also the tourism sector. Before the pandemic, we received 84 million visitors/year”, he stressed.
He said that at the moment there are already 60 million tourists registered-“which shows that we are already starting to recover. The International Tourism Organisation (ILO) is headquartered in Madrid and is a factor to be explored”.
Angola has tourism potential, but there are still some things to do and Spain can help with that. In addition to a marketing strategy, more services would also help to awaken and make better use of all the potential that the country has”.
Bilateral cooperation relations between Angola and the Kingdom of Spain are based on the General Cooperation Agreement signed on May 20, 1987, and the Complementary Agreement to the General Agreement signed in November 1987.
Cooperation between the two countries has intensified in the business sector with the presence of Spanish companies in Angola.
