Luanda – From 2025's Feb, Angola will assume, for the 1st time, the annual rotating presidency of the African Union (AU), in the year in which the country celebrates 50 years of Independence and hosts the 17th edition of the US-Africa Business Summit.
By António Tavares, ANGOP journalist
Clearly, it is an agenda that will require redoubled efforts to respond to all national and international challenges.
President João Lourenço is to replace his Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Ghazouani, at the helm of the AU, during the 38th ordinary session of the AU Conference of Heads of State and Govt, scheduled for the 15th and 16th of February, in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia and AU's headquarters.
For the success of this continental mission, the Angolan President created an interministerial working group to prepare, coordinate and organize the tasks inherent to Angola's duties in the AU chair.
The group is coordinated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and has as deputy coordinator the Minister of
National Defense, Former Combatants and Veterans of the Homeland.
The measure results from the need to create an ad-hoc operational structure, with specific skills and articulation capacity, in Angola and with the AU, to ensure the preparation and effective execution of the objectives defined by Angola and close coordination and collaboration with regional and international partners.
The group created has the task of preparing a detailed conceptual note on the Angolan presidency's strategy, focused on the chosen theme, in cooperation with the AU's “Justice for Africans and Afro-descendants through compensation”, as well as contemplating the perspective on “Infrastructures, a factor in Africa’s development”.
Likewise, it is the group's task to prepare the plan, activities' schedule, the budgetary approval, organize, coordinate, manage and monitor the tasks inherent to Angola's mandate, as AU head.
For Angola, the African Union plays a central role in promoting unity, solidarity and progress on the continent, and its leadership, in 2025, should reinforce these principles, promoting concrete actions that contribute to peace, security and development in Africa.
Angola understands that it has a unique opportunity to persuade and promote initiatives that are crucial to the continent's development, mainly with regard to the promotion of infrastructures as a factor in sustainable and inclusive development.
Armed conflicts haunt the agenda
Angola's mandate comes at a time when African leaders have been striving to achieve the objective of silencing weapons on the continent, combating terrorism and unconstitutional changes, creating a good business environment to attract increasing private investment and creating wealth and employment for its populations.
President João Lourenço considers it urgent to put an end to the fighting, wherever it exists, to reach a ceasefire and negotiate a long-lasting peace, allowing the return of the large number of people who, as in Sudan, for example, are currently refugees in neighboring countries.
The continent is currently facing several challenges and threats, which constitute an authentic blockade to the implementation and fulfillment of the objectives set for development, which also affect its stability, self-affirmation and continental progress.
Some of these challenges such as environmental issues, the increase in the population's cost of living, the cut in energy supply chains, security and peace issues have forced AU Member States to accelerate the implementation of programs and projects aimed at deepening the integration process.
With this process, the aim is to boost sustainable and inclusive socioeconomic development, eradicate poverty and preserve peace and security, thus contributing to the stabilization, pacification and economic development of the continent.
Thus, far from being a restful mandate, Angola's agenda at the head of the pan-African organization will prioritize mediation of the armed conflicts raging across the region.
The AU Peace Champion has already elected the Sudanese situation to the "top of priorities" on his agenda when he assumes the presidency of this continental organization.
As for the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has merited Angola's mediation, it will certainly be an opportunity for the country to take advantage of to sensitize as many African states as possible to embrace this cause, not as a mission just for Angola, but of the continent as a whole as it is a security issue that concerns all Member States.
A Continental integration, in the economic domain, will also be part of the strategy that will allow Africa to expand its markets, expand the continent's economic space and reap the best benefits for its populations.
Therefore, it will be an opportunity for Angola to appeal to the continued commitment of Member States to overcome the challenges and work in search of the best methods and means that guarantee the intensification of compliance with the continental integration agenda.
In his speech at the 16th US-Africa Business Summit, 2024 edition, President João Lourenço said that the economic integration of regional communities and Africa as a whole implies greater mobility and connectivity.
He also stressed the need for greater ease of circulation and sharing of some fundamental infrastructures between African countries in order to connect countries in the north of the continent, from the Maghreb to the South, passing through the countries on the Atlantic Ocean west African coast, to those on the Indian Ocean African eastern coast.
This, he argued, will only be a reality when heavy investment is made in the construction of highways, roads and transnational highways, in the construction of more railways, more hydroelectric dams and respective transmission lines, more kilometers of submarine and fiber optic cables, which will also enable the effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.
It follows that, during its mandate, Angola will continue to promote the importance of this agreement and the Lobito Corridor seeking the continent's development.
US-Africa Summit
Organizing the 17th US-Africa Business Summit from this year June 23rd to 27th is the perfect marriage with Angola's mandate at the AU, to reflect on business opportunities and perspectives between the United States of America and the African continent.
The meeting will take place at a time when the United States and Africa, aware of their potential, have been intensifying dialogue at the institutional level, with the aim of strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation ties.
In a portrait in which the USA, with its industrial development, its capacity for technological innovation, and Africa, with its vast wealth of natural resources, its young population and its expanding market, position themselves as essential partners for to face the great challenges of food and energy security, environmental protection, international trade and the global economy.
At the 16th Edition of the Summit, organized in the North American city of Dallas, President João Lourenço, who participated as first deputy-chairperson of the African Union, said that Africa counts greatly on this new partnership with the United States for the financing and construction of the infrastructure needed for development.
He mentioned that the African continent counts on the USA to increase its hydroelectric energy production capacity from its abundant water resources, and to build photovoltaic solar energy production parks on a continent with an abundance of sun that is wasted.
Communication and information infrastructures through satellites, submarine cables, fiber optic networks and repeater towers for mobile telephony and expansion of the Internet signal are of vital importance for the fastest development of Africa, the president highlighted.
At the event, recognized as one of the most important business platforms, more than three thousand delegates are expected, including African Heads of State and key ministers, senior US administration officials, heads of main agencies, senior executives of American and African companies.
Participants will essentially address topics linked to infrastructure, agriculture, electricity, health, among other cross-cutting issues that affect African countries.
The meeting will also serve as a way for Angola to present business potential and opportunities to African and North American investors, with emphasis on the Lobito Corridor, an asset of the country to develop national and African socio-economic activity.
Before the Summit, Angolan diplomacy will launch promotional forums in some African countries, with a view to reinforcing investor mobilization for this year's forum.
50 years of Independence
Angola 2025 marks the jubilee of National Independence, prepared to be celebrated with the pomp that the circumstance demands.
The celebrations take place over a year period, from Nov 11, 2024 to December 31, 2025, with decentralized activities in all provinces and diplomatic missions in Angola.
The celebration of 50 years of Independence is seen as an opportunity to reflect on three key moments in Angola's trajectory, namely the fight for Independence, the achievement of peace and the construction of national development.
The festivities will take place under the motto "A Better Future, 50 Years: Preserving and Valuing the Achievements, Building Angola".
The program covers cultural, historical and social activities that directly involve the population.
With these festive agenda, the aim is to achieve, among other objectives, the reinforcement of patriotism and national pride, the promotion of knowledge about the history and Angola's culture, reflection on the challenges faced and future opportunities for the country's development, in addition to celebrating solidarity and cooperation between the different sectors of society.
ART/IZ/CF/DOJ
