Angola with new law to simplify private investment

All the decision-making process associated with private investment in Angola will become more agile, and that repatriation of capital, profits and dividends will also be speedier. The promisse was made by the Angolan Economy Minister, Abraão Gourgel.

According to the news: “The Economy Minister’s statement was based on a favourable assessment at the joint meeting of the Committees for the Economy and the Real Economy, both linked to the Council of Ministers, of the Proposed Review of the Private Investment Law, which will be taken to the National Assembly”. After the approval of the new Private Investment Law in parliament, National Agency for Private Investment (ANIP) will be charged with monitoring and promoting it.

“Priority areas are Tourism, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Logistics and Transport, Energy and Water, as well as Construction.” and the investment process will be regulated from now on following those priorities, said the Minister,

Foreign investors in those sectors will be required to have a 35% national partnership and the Minister declared that “The new law states that investments up to US$10 million are to be approved by ministerial departments and investments of over US$10 million will be forwarded to the holder of executive power,”

Western Union: Angola has a high potential for market growth

Angola is a country with high potential for growth at the eyes of the multinational Western Union. The company has 230 money transfer offices in the country, but its responsibles believe there is room for growth until at least one thousand.

According to the statements made to newspaper ‘Expansão’ by the company’s vice-president for Western and Southern Africa, Richard Malcolm, Angola is amongst the 10 most important markets for Western Union.

Currently, Western Union’s 230 money transfer offices have agreements with BFA, Millenium Angola, BCI e BAI. Besides banks, there is also an agreement with Correios de Angola and this week, according to ‘Expansão’, the company has established a new partnership with Rucâmbio, in Luanda. (Source: Expansão)

Mace wins project management for the new Luanda International Airport

Mace, an UK consultancy and construction company based in London, has been appointed to provide project management and site supervision services for the new Luanda International Airport.

According to the company site: “The construction works have already begun on site and the Ministry of Transportation has since concluded that appointing an international project management company, to manage and supervise the remaining construction works, is required to ensure the delivery of this airport meets international aviation standards. The project is due to complete and open in 2017”.

Mace project director, Carlos Cruz commented: “Our team in Angola is proud to be part of what will be the most important construction project in the country for the next couple of years. It is an infrastructure of decisive importance for the economic growth of the country and no doubt it will put Luanda on the international aviation map.”

Regional director for sub-Saharan Africa, Nick Demain, added: “As our first major aviation project in sub-Saharan Africa, this is an exciting project for the team and a great win given the local challenges. It also further strengthens our portfolio for the region as we continue to receive infrastructure and transport-related enquiries.”

The new Luanda International Airport will be a modern quality infrastructure facility with the aim of becoming ‘the’ aviation hub of western Africa. It will have capacity to accommodate 15 million passengers and 50,000 tonnes of cargo per year.

With the above objective in mind, the Angolan Ministry of Transportation signed a FIDIC design and build turnkey contract for US$3.8bn with the Chinese contractor CIF for the new airport. The airport will feature two runways, one 4.2km long (for the A380 airbus) and one of 3.8km. The terminal has a gross floor area of 170,000 m2, and will have three piers with ten gates per pier. The project also includes the construction of a rail link to the capital, to the province of Luanda, and possibly to the neighbouring province of Malanje. (Source: Company website)

Angola starts granting multiple-entry visas

Angola is starting to grant multiple-entry tourist and ordinary visas.The modernisation process of its Immigration Services is aplauded and “warmly wlecomed” by visitors entrepreneurs and investors alike, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

“Given the slow pace of business in Angola, a month is not always enough for an investor to meet with the relevant people in government and additional flexibility is certainly more attractive,” says the latest report from the EIU quoted by MacauHub.

Until now, ordinary visas lasted only 30 days and could be renewed within the country twice, but the process is slow due to problems at the issuing bodies.

Also according to the EIU, “The creation of a tourist visa is an important measure that can help unlock the high tourist potential of Angola, which largely remains untapped”.

The ongoing process of facilitating the allocation of visas by Angola makes the country more attractive to investors and tourists, creating new sources of revenue, at a time when oil revenues are in decline.

In the current difficulties, the diversification of the economy has become urgent and the Tourist Development Institute of Angola (Infotur) estimates that tourism may represent an added value to GDP of at least US$4.7 billion annually from 2020, says the site

Another modernisation announced by the authorities to facilitate entries into the country is the acceleration of international arrivals, which are also time-consuming.

“These measures are welcome in a country that, given the rapid decline of its oil revenue, needs to do everything it can to become more attractive to investors and create new revenue streams,” added the EIU.

In recent months, Angola announced the facilitation of business visas for Portugal and Brazil.

Under the agreement with Brazil, business visas are valid for multiple entries over two years, allowing the holder to stay up to 90 days that cannot be extended, in each period of one year.

In the face of current difficulties, said the EIU, Angola’s priority should be its relationship with international partners such as “China, the United States and European Union” and countries in the region, concludes Macau Hub.

Angola and Portugal joined to prepare 2015-2018 Strategic Cooperation Programme

Agriculture, Energy and Economy will be the areas with greater focus included in the new Strategic Cooperation Programme (SCP) for the 2015-2018 period, now beeing prepared by Angola and Portugal. This information was provided in Luanda the Portuguese Secretary of State for Cooperation, Luís Campos Ferreira, during a working meeting with his Angolan counterpart, Angela Bragança (Photo).

According to Campos Ferreira: “This programme aims to monitor and support the National Development Plan and the National Executive Training Plan, which Angola is implementing,” The Secretary of State for Cooperation of Angola, Angela Bragança, also declared that the meeting “Marks the beginning of this more objective and more pragmatic work, particularly given the realities of the two countries,”

The state secretaries for Cooperation of the two countries signed an addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding on the 2007 Indicative Cooperation Programme, to prepare for the 2015-2018 SCP. (Source: Lusa)

Angola reigns at Lisbon Fashion Week

Angola reigned at Moda Lisboa fashion week, writes contributor Declan Eytan for ‘Forbes’. Moda Lisboa, as he accurately points out “is the bi-annual event in which Portugal’s fashion capital Lisbon gets to show what its local fashion industry is all about”. And, this 44th edition, Angola stole the show.

“Luanda-based Nadir Tati presented her collection, which was themed “40 Years Of Independence”, for the first time at ModaLisboa. The collection saw the use of ankara fabric – which is often favored by African designers – in addition to a number of sheer evening looks, plus a full dress and matching headscarf in native Angolan style, that made for the ultimate show stopper”, writes Declan Eytan, adding that “Angola’s presence was also felt on the runway outside of Tati’s show. Internationally sought-after models, discovered in the former Portuguese colony, strutted down the square-shaped catwalk for a variety of designers. Portuguese creative director Miguel Vieira – whose offerings for fall consist of high necklines for her, double-breasted suits for him, in dark hues of bordeaux and black – was one of the many local designers to cast Angolan newcomer Amilna Estevão for his show”.

You may read the entire article here. (Models Fabio Tavares, Amilna Estevao and Fernando Cabral backstage at Miguel Vieira. Photo Credits: Bernardo Coelho)

,

Unitel may acquire Guiné Telecom

Unitel is interested in acquiring Guiné Telecom, a company that is technically bankrupted. However, it will wait until an international public tender is launched by the government of Guine, an official source revealed yesterday in Bissau.

According to Portuguese news agency Lusa, Eunice Lopes Esteves -, who is presiding the restructuration of state owned Guiné Telecom and Guinetel – has made this statement during a conference about “Telecommunications in Guiné-Bissau”.

The initiative, ending next Thursday, gathered potential buyers from countries such as Gana, China, South Africa, Romania and also law firms representing other third parties.

Lopes Esteves declared that an approach in fact existed by Angolan group Unitel, owned by entrepreneur Isabel dos Santos. “There was a specific intention from Unitel in 2011, and we had some talks”. Now, an international public tender to be launched soon will help clarify any developments.

Francophone and French language Week starts in Angola

Starting today, the Francophone French language Week will go on until 21 March. Several cultural and festive activities are organized by the Alliance Française (AFL), in partnership with the Member of the International Francophone Organization represented in Angola and the French-speaking schools and Angolan teacher training schools.

According to the press officer of Alliance Française, Noéme Sido: “Students will be introduced to techniques for using the tale stories and narrations as a tool for spreading a language”, At the same time as the initial session, a storytelling workshop aimed for students of basic French schools of Luanda, other activities under the theme “The telling of stories, a tool in teaching a language”, will take place in schools located in the provinces of Benguela, Namibe, Huila and Bengo.

News agency Angop mentions that “In addition to these activities, it still planned to be held competition on environment, music show, lectures, gastronomy (Night of Francophone flavors), community and academic sessions in a spirit of promoting cultural and linguistic diversity, education and peace.

According to the programme, on 20 March, the São Miguel Fortress in the upper part of the city of Luanda, it will be carried out a community festive night in Angola, an environment to celebrate the culinary tradition of African, European and Asian Francophones”.

Author of the Angola Pavilion in Milan wins Special Award

Paula Nascimento, designer of the Angola Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015, won a Special Award from arcVision Prize WE-Women for Expo. In the year of the universal event in Milan, arcVision Prize presented a Special Award to Paula Nascimento, considered to be “an emerging figure in contemporary architecture”. “At just 34 years of age, Paula Nascimento has already completed a long personal and collective journey which led her from Luanda, where she was born, to the gateway towards international success as an architect, critical observer of the social-urban context and promoter of the new design culture”, the arcVision responsibles stated.

At its exhibition space in Milan, Angola was able to showcase Angolan food and fare that can be used to create better and healthier lifestyles for future generations. Angola has chosen to elaborate the theme of Expo Milano 2015, Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life: focusing on the culture and soul of the African nation through its varied and traditional cuisine, with its theme of: Educate to Innovate.

“Paula Nascimento” – said Stefano Casciani, Scientific Director of the arcVision Prize – “though still young has achieved with her work a quality level that highlights and enhances the role of women in the global scenario of architecture through her many activities: as cultural organizer of important exhibitions, designer of sensitive installations and buildings, attentive promoter of sustainability issues and search for a new aesthetic language. For this reason she was awarded the Special arcVision Prize WE-Women for Expo by Italcementi, which this year is ideally connected to Expo 2015 and its basic themes: equality of global populations in the right to food in the respect of natural environment, combined with the design research of technologies and production processes sensitive to planetary balance and preservation for future generations.”

Paula Nascimento is an Architect and Researcher born in Luanda, in 1981. She lives and works in Luanda and has degrees from the London Southbank University and the Architectural Association in London. Worked with Alvaro Siza Architects, RDA Chartered Architects and Architects Bates Zambelli in several residential projects in Heritage and Conservation projects. Currently working with the Angolan Commission for the Expo (Angola Pavilion Expo Yeosu 2012; currently as architect, and project coordinator of Angola for Expo Milano 2015). Since 2011 a co-founder and director of Beyond Entropy Africa, a research based studio working in the fields of architecture, urbanism, visual arts and geopolitics; and contributor to various publications and catalogues. With Stefano Rabolli Pansera curated in 2012 the Angola Pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia (Beyond Entropy Angola), and in 2013, the Angola Pavilion at the 55th International Exhibition of Arts – la Biennale di Venezia (encyclopedic Luanda city), winner of the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, and Angola 35º Award for Arts and Culture; and the itinerant project “Ilha de Sao Jorge” (exhibited in Venice in 2014, Hangar Biccoca in Milano & ICA in London, 2015). Editor of the book “Ilha de São Jorge – Intrepid Visions” with Ana Vaz Milheiro and Stefano Serventi. Other exhibits include “Luanda from the bottom up,” with Paulo Moreira and Stefano Rabolli Pansera, Porto 2012; “Luanda Encyclopedic City 2” with Edson Chagas, Luanda 2013. Upcoming participations include “Africa is Now” at Indaba Design Festival in Cape Town, Pés Descalços cultural collective, New Perspectives Conference at the Serralves Museum, among others.

Luanda International Airport will have train link to the city

The new Luanda International Airport will start operating in March 2017 and, as well as a new access road, will have a direct rail link – provided by the Luanda Railroad – and six stations, the last of which will be at the airport terminal, according to information released this Wednesday by the Ministry of Transport during the visit of President José Eduardo dos Santos, to the site.

Construction of the new airport in Luanda started in 2004 and its completion is scheduled for March 2017. Two of the runways are practically complete, as is the airport control tower, with ongoing construction of the terminal, which according to the Angolan government will receive 15 million passengers per year.

The new international airport is located in an area of ​​1,324 hectares and will have two double runways, with capacity for the largest commercial aircraft in the world, the Airbus A380.

The northern airport runway will be 4,200 metres long, while the southern runway will be 3,800 meters long, and both will be 60 metres wide. (Source: MacauHub)