Welcome to the page of the State Visit to Angola

To begin with I want to greet and express my thanks to the Provincial Governor of Huila for his presence amongst us today, an unmistakable sign of the interest which he had made clear during our earlier meeting, for the increased Portuguese entrepreneurial presence in this beautiful Province.

I also want to warmly congratulate the organizers of this Forum, which I believe to be very opportune and of great importance.

I am very pleased to address the Huila entrepreneurial community, as well as the entrepreneurs that came on this mission, jointly promoted by AICEP and AIP, included in the programme of my State Visit to Angola and who have journeyed here due to their recognition of this region’s potential.

The enterprising capabilities of the Portuguese who have been established here are well known. Their companies are an extremely relevant factor in the creation of employment and for economic and social development. Their experience deserves our full recognition and is a valuable indicator for those who wish to extend their activities to the Province of Huila.

The figures of the economic relationship between Portugal and Angola are well known. They are proof of the much that we have jointly known how to build and are a clear illustration of the very particular nature of the bonds that link the Portuguese and the Angolans.

These figures demonstrate that nothing that may occur in Portugal is indifferent to Angola, such as nothing that occurs in Angola is indifferent to the Portuguese.

It is very important that Portuguese entrepreneurs are mindful of the priorities for development identified by the Angolan authorities, since these allow understanding the paths this great friendly nation intends to follow and what are the resulting opportunities.

And Angola has been very clear as to the two priorities that it has elected and which are complementary: the diversification of its economy, excessively dependent upon one sole resource, when the country’s enormous potential in other sectors is well known, and the stake placed on the interior, with the intention of bringing more people here, to combat desertification, to promote territorial cohesion and to relieve the pressure incident on Luanda.

Any of these priorities contain in themselves a world of opportunities for heedful entrepreneurs.

To speak about placing a stake in the interior of Angola, in this Province, is to recognize the need for infrastructures that is still felt, notwithstanding the progress ascertained in latter years; establish the potential offered by activities such as agriculture and cattle breeding, forestry, food industries, bio-fuels; it is also looking ahead to a time when tourists from all parts discover, at last, the extraordinary beauty of this land, the grandeur of its landscapes and the pleasantness of its climate.

This is yet a fertile ground for the assertion of companies’ social responsibility, specifically in the support for education, training and the inducing of the capability of human resources that any process of sustainable development requires. When meeting this other priority in Angola’s development – the training of human resources – companies will also be working towards their own success.

For all these reasons I am very pleased with the organization of this Entrepreneurial Forum, and very sincerely hope that the contacts it may have caused and may still do so will be the origin of partnerships that allow the strengthening of the Portuguese entrepreneurial presence in this Province, thus contributing towards the improvement in the welfare of its peoples and to the strengthening of the relations between Portugal and Angola which both countries are desirous of.

Thank you very much.