Luanda - For the last two years Brazil has projected investment of around US$3 billion for Angola, said Friday in Luanda the Brazilian ambassador to Angola, Rafael Melo Vidal.
The Brazilian diplomat spoke to ANGOP and Jornal de Angola newspaper in the scope of the ceremony to honour Angolan and Brazilian citizens for acts that contributed to strengthening cooperation relations between both countries.
He said that the amount would be used to invest in refineries, power plants, agriculture, construction of centres and a new pharmaceutical company, recalling that the business exchange is around USD 700 million a year.
Rafael Melo Vidal stressed that in addition to trade relations, there is a large cultural agenda as well as high integration and migration flows between the two states and added that over 20 billion US dollars have been invested since 2002.
The diplomat advanced that regarding the technical field, approximately 70 cooperation projects were carried out and that a further five are underway with focus on agriculture, health, housing and staff training.
Regarding the strategic partnership, the Brazilian ambassador said that new agreements are being drawn up in the fields of sustainable tourism, development of sea coast with Brazilian hotel enterprises with environmental treatment in return.
The ambassador stated that the bilateral commission should meet in November this year in Brazil aiming to approve new agreements in the sectors of agriculture, diplomatic integration, training of Angolan military in Brazil, among others.
However, as part of the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Brazil's Independence, marked on Wednesday 7 July, the Brazilian ambassador to Angola, Rafael Melo Vidal, handed over on Friday medals to honour some Angolan and Brazilian citizens
The State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Esmeralda Cinde da Silva and the Director of the State Protocol, Isabel Paula de Castro were decorated with the Brazilian Order “Rio Branco – Grand Offcial degree”.
In the same occasion, the Director for International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Interior, Commissioner José Dembe was honoured with the Brazilian Order “Rio Branco - Grau Comendador”. The Angolan João Domingos Mateus received the title of “Honorary Member of the Brazilian Air Force”, the Angolan Inês Lourdes Mateus Bernardo received the “Brazilian Army Medal”.
In the ceremony were also honoured staff of the Brazilian military chancellery, namelly the colonel Fábio Dockhorn de Oliveira with the medal of “Santos-Dumont Merit”, the sub-lieutenant Paulo Roberto da Cruz Júnior received the medal “Bartolomeu Gusmão”.
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Esmeralda Conde da Silva, representing the awardees, proposed to continue working to strengthen the friendship and cooperation bonds between both countries.
The Angolan diplomat considered the relationship between the two countries to be special, which reflects the natural will of the people.
Rafael Melo Vidal said that the homage is the recognition of the President and the Brazilian State, for having been “great players” in the strengthening of the relationship between the two countries.
He called for continued work on the implementation of the strategic partnership and the expansion of the bilateral agenda.
