Luanda - The minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Maria do Rosário Bragança, said on Friday in Luanda that the Luanda Science and Technology Park will be an interaction point for the academia, scientific research and the business world.
The minister made this statement after presiding over the ceremony of laying the first stone for the construction of the infrastructure.
She also said that the initiative is part of the Project for the Development of Science and Technology (PDCT) and emphasized that there is similar spaces in the world, and such spaces will allow the business concentration of companies in training (Business Incubators or Spin-Off), Scientific Research Centers and Higher Education Institutions.
Maria Bragança also said that it will be an unprecedented work in the country, in a noble place of the city of Luanda, to give better dignity to the National Center of Scientific Research (CNIC), which is in an advanced state of degradation, as well as the rehabilitation, demolition and construction of new institutions in the surroundings.
The minister underlined that the infrastructure will allow a new dynamic in the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation.
According to the minister, undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate, master's, and doctoral students will be able to improve their training through internships in companies, entrepreneurship projects, and business incubators.
On his turn, the executive director of the African Development Bank (ADB), Gerard Bussier, praised the investment in science and technology that the Angolan government is making, given the enormous potential in unexploited resources.
Through science and technology, according to Gerard Bussier, Angola will gain workers with flexible careers, particularly in the sciences.
The construction work, which will last 30 months, is budgeted at US$35 million, co-financed (by loan) by the African Development Bank (ADB).
The contract will be executed by PAN-CHINA GROUP, which will construct eight new buildings and a greenhouse and rehabilitate 11 other physical structures.
The first phase of the project, which will be concluded within 14 months, includes the rehabilitation of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNIC), the construction of a new building for the Faculty of Social Sciences of the public Agostinho Neto University, among other works.
The Project for Development of Science and Technology is national in scope and aims at contributing to the diversification of the economy, through science and technology, being budgeted at US$100 million, financed 90 percent by ADB and 10 percent of counterpart funds from the Angolan Government.
