Havana – Angola has established as one of its priorities the investment in science, technology and innovation, as a strategy to face the challenges of diversification and economic growth, said this Friday in Havana, Cuba, the Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço.
The statesman, who was delivering a speech at the general debate of the High Level Summit of the G77+China, disclosed that the country also set out as priority the need to increase production, global competitiveness plus the digital and energetic transition, in the ambit of the policies and programmes turned to the improvement of the living standard of Angolans.
In this perspective, he underlined that the sector of science, information and communication technologies is at a process of growth and expansion.
As example, he underscored the construction and placing into orbit, by the Russian Federation, of the Angolan satellite known as Angosat-2.
“We’ve been expanding the national network of broadband and terrestrial digital television, and we’ve also integrated the consortium of international optical fibre submarine cable 2-Africa”, revealed the Angolan President at the Global South gathering.
He went on to say that in the path of great initiatives with strategic scope, the Angolan Executive has promoted the access and participation of the youth, chiefly girls, in education, training, science and technology.
He said this trend is interconnected, not only because of the relevance of its contribution in the national scientific community, but also because of the compromise with equality and gender empowerment.
He defended that it is essential to place emphasis on the active role of the G-77+China in the creation of a balanced vision about the comtemporary political facts that generate great tensions, such as the conflict in Europe’s centre-east region.
João Lourenço stressed that regarding such conflict, the G-77+China group members should not be indifferent, because it is imperative the need to respect the United Nations Charter and the International Law norms.
Conflicts in Africa
In this area, President Lourenço regretted the fact that one can see again, with raising concern, in the African continent, the spread of terrorist actions and the reappearance of coup d’Etats carried out by the military, with condemnation from the African Union (AU) and the international community in general.
“It is important that this very same international community does not send ambiguous signs in face of the taking of power through unconstitutional means, being necessary to abstain from attitudes and behaviours that take authority from regional and continental organisations and which can be interpreted as encouragement to coup perpetrators”, João Lourenço warned.
Rearding the embargo on Cuba
João Lourenço appealed to the members of this Global South plus China forum gathered in Havana to speak in one voice and defend the immediate end to the embargo against Cuba.
Thus, the Angolan statesman deemed the embargo on Cuba injust, inhuman,contrary to the principles of international trade and co-operation, the inalienable right to self-determination and free choice.
Cuba chairs, for the first time, the G77+China group that gathers developing countries and 134 member countries of the United Nations.
The G-77 plus China was created on June 15, 1964 by 77 developing countries and is the largest and most diverse group in the multilateral arena, with 134 Member States, including Angola, representing two thirds of the members of the system of Nations United States and 80 percent of the world's population.
It is the largest intergovernmental organisation of developing countries in the United Nations and its purpose is to promote the collective economic interests of its members and improve their capacity for multilateral negotiation within the United Nations (UN) System.
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