Luanda – Angola plans to establish a real partnership with the Republic of Zambia to ensure promotion and broadening of friendly ties and economic cooperation, the Angolan Head of State João Lourenço said Wednesday in Luanda.
João Lourenço made the pledge at the opening of bilateral talks, as part of the state visit of the Zambian President, Hakainde Hichilema, to Angola.
The statesman said the partnership aims to promote and expand the sectors of education, culture and science, agricultural production, extractive and processing raw materials industry and road, rail and electricity interconnection between the two countries.
He said despite the various agreements, memorandums and protocols signed between the two countries, « the results of economic cooperation and trade exchange are still not very significant, being far from the country’s ambitions.
The Angolan president defended the need to develop more active cooperation to better take advantage of the vast resources of the two countries, the capacity and fairness of their peoples and the dynamism of their leaders in order to change this situation.
However, the Angolan president highlighted the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Public Works, Urbanism and Housing of Angola and the Ministry of Infrastructures, Housing and Urban Development of Zambia.
According to him, the goal is to facilitate the construction of a road linking the two countries through the Jimbe border.
The Head of State also noted that such understanding will give a great boost to the development of the private sector, with the massive movement of investors and tourists in both counties.
Lourenço also announced the intention to put the Lobito corridor infrastructure, which include the commercial port of Lobito, the mining terminal of the port and the Benguela Railroad line, with the Luacano branch line, soon to be built in Angola’s Moxico province to boost economy of the countries of the region, namely Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Angolan statesman also announced other important initiatives to boost bilateral cooperation.
They include the border electrification project between the two countries, « still under study and expected to aid the growth of our border areas, » and the ongoing project to build the Rivungo/ Xangongo navigable canal and respective infrastructures.
João Lourenço praised the Zambian president’s visit to Angola stating that it was a great opportunity to discuss the best way to boost, with practical sense, all existing initiatives, so that the best benefits could be reaped from cooperation in such areas, which would surely result in significant reciprocal advantages.
Angola and Zambia develop relations within the framework established by the General Agreement on Economic, Science, Technical and Cultural Cooperation, signed in 1979.