Luanda – US President Joe Biden on Wednesday thanked the Angolans for their hospitality and promised to return to the Southern African nation to assess the progress of the Lobito Corridor.
Speaking at the Multilateral Summit on the Lobito Corridor, the last stage of his three-day visit to Angola, the US president said he has a special affection for projects linked to Railways.
Joe Biden recalled that 160 years ago his country started the first transcontinental railroad, something that was the pride of President Abraham Lincoln, who had the dream of traveling along it after his mandate.
The US president promised to come back and take a trip along the Lobito Corridor during the Summit attended by Presidents João Lourenço (Angola) Félix Tshisekedi (DRC), Hakainde Hichilema (Zambia) and the Vice President of Tanzania, Philip Mpango.
During his speech at the opening of talks between delegations from Angola and the US, Biden said he felt proud to be the first American President to visit Angola and that his counterpart João Lourenço has been “very generous and hospitable”,
On this historic visit, Joe Biden was accompanied by a vast team made up of members of the United States Congress, senior officials of his Administration and American business and civic leaders.
Angola is the United States' fourth largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, with trade surpassing 1.77 billion US dollars in 2023.
In November this year, the two countries established a memorandum of understanding regarding the US-Angola Trade and Investment Partnership, while the US Department of Commerce is promoting a trade mission to the ports and railways of Sub-Saharan Africa in 2025, in Angola and South Africa, to present to the US companies the potential of these sectors in African markets.
The US also promoted a mission linked to agribusiness, in February, during which 140 meetings were held between businesspeople, with US participants predicting an increase of 13.3 million in sales over the next 12 months.
The US and Angola signed agreements to facilitate air connections and bilateral trade, through the Prosperous Africa initiative, under which business worth 6.9 billion US dollars has been carried out since 2021.
Since 2022, the US government said, USAID has provided almost 415 million dollars to treat and prevent diseases and trained more than 12,000 workers, which has allowed a 29 percent decrease in malaria deaths in 2023 in provinces covered by the PMI initiative compared to 2020 levels.
The State department has said it will continue financing the promotion of human rights, according to the availability of funds and to provide scholarships to Angolan students, as well as other support in the area of education. ART/AMP
