Angola: Italian business mission, focus on food and vegetables

Luanda - Angola aims to strengthen trade and economic cooperation with Italy to raise investment and finance projects in the agriculture, fisheries, industry, energy and hotel and tourism sectors. The intention was expressed on Wednesday in Luanda by the director of the Technical Unit for Private Investment (UTIP), Norberto Garcia, during a meeting between an Italian business mission and locals business associations, cooperatives, NGOs and public and private companies. The meeting aimed to establish partnerships between companies from both countries, with greater emphasis on the sectors of industry and agriculture, within the framework of the "Sustainable Rural Development Program in Cooperatives led by women".

In his opening speech, the Angolan official acknowledged that granting entry visas to foreign businessmen is "a barrier to establishing partnerships". Therefore, he defended the need to grant border visas to foreign investors, because "there are investors who want to be here 24 hours and then leave". At the same meeting, the Italian ambassador to Angola, Claudio Miscia, made a brief speech in which he highlighted that the meeting allowed to know the investment projects of entrepreneurs of the two countries and to draw lines of negotiations for a possible financing. He added that "trade relations between Angola and Italy could increase with the realization of exportable agricultural production such as fruit and vegetables and cereals and the facilitation of the granting of visas".

The Italian delegation is made up of representatives of the Confederation of the Italian Manufacturing Industry and Private Enterprise (CONFIMI), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO ITPO Italia), the NGO of the Confederation of Italian Cooperatives (CooperMondo) and the Network Of Investment Promotion Organizations and Projects for the Improvement of Human Life (ETIMOS). In Angola, the delegation, which arrived Monday and returns this evening, holds meetings with the ministers of the Family and Promotion of Women, Filomena Delgado, of the Fisheries, Victoria de Barros, of the Industry, Bernarda Martins, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Sovereign Fund of Angola and the Central Bank of Angola. Before returning to Italy, the mission visits an agricultural enterprise in the outskirts of Luanda, the Nova Agrolider, which intends to export bananas to Italy, after this year began exporting this product to Portugal. Other markets pursued by the company are the Netherlands and Germany.
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