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Henriques da Silva, minister
of public works and urbanism, acknowledges the huge task faced by the
government in reconstructing Angola’s infrastructure.
Every province has been affected by the civil war to a greater or lesser
degree. But Mr da Silva believes
the country has the resources to accelerate growth: “In the rehabilitation
process we are neither at the end nor the beginning, but we have the
raw materials and the agricultural potential to rebuild our country,”
he says.
The privatisation process began in 1987, but few state firms have been
sold off and several have failed to grow because of lack of funds. Mr
da Silva says: “For the firms that have not been privatised we
are starting an intermediate phase in which potential buyers enter a
management contract under a previously agreed programme.
“The buyer has to invest until all the agreed objectives are reached.
If the investor shows he has the capacity and responsibility, we will
accept the privatisation.”
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The
state-owned civil construction company Geotecnica
is hoping to pick up more work when it is privatised. General manager
Elvino Junior says: “Privatisation is very important,
not only because it would allow for quicker development of the sector
but because the state alone is unable to properly manage all the [state-owned]
firms in Angola.”
Geotecnica specialises in foundation work for large construction projects
like sports stadia, housing and office blocks, power stations and waterworks.
Mr Junior adds: “In the privatisation we are planning to sell 70
per cent of the shares to a foreign investor, 20 per cent to domestic
firms and 10 per cent to a single investor.”
Every province has been affected by the civil war
The
private sector is also contributing greatly to the rebuilding of Angola’s
infrastructure and social fabric. Tecnocarro, a conglomerate of companies
employing more than 2,000 people, has interests in agriculture, tourism,
transport, food products and construction.
One of its major activities is cattle-raising, of which administrator
Jose Carlos Recio is very proud. “We have invested lots of money
in livestock in the south of Angola. In Namibe, Lubango and Cunene we
have about 2.7 million head of cattle,” he says.
“We have cooperated with local farmers because they are poor and
not able to finance their own activities. We invested $15 million in
a European-standard slaughterhouse, and we help the farmers with water
supplies, vaccination programmes and trading their livestock.”
Daily supplies of meat are flown to the capital, Luanda, and Mr Recio
says there is scope for the export of meat. All the cattle are reared
on organic feed. And, after all, he adds, meat is a renewable resource.
Tecnocarro has long been involved in the social aspects of Angolan life.
The firm provides more than 7,000 free meals a day, and runs an orphanage
and a clinic.
Mr
Recio believes tourism will become a major activity for the company
in future. Tecnocarro operates a holiday resort near the Kissama national
park, and promotes tourism on the Cuanza River.
In Mussulo, another resort, it has built apartments. “We are always
interested in new areas of business, such as Porto Cabinda to serve
the oil community,” he says. “We function as a BOT (build-operate-transfer)
company and train our workers to carry on after we have left.”
He adds: “We are also in a partnership to get the Malange rail
corridor working, because it is much cheaper to transport goods by rail
than by plane. We have the task of organising all the logistics there
and Malange is certainly the biggest problem we face, because so much
has been destroyed and there is a lack of skilled human resources.”
Escom, a company in Portugal’s Espirito Santo Group, is also involved in public works and transport projects. It has invested more than $150 million in water treatment, sanitation projects and hospitals in Angola. The firm founded African Markets Development Ltd (AMDL) with local companies, including Sonangol, to make joint venture investments in Angola. Some of AMDL’s main investments have been made in food retailing. In Luanda it has set up a ‘cash and carry’ operation for the distribution of goods through the country. AMDL also participates in mining, fishing and air cargo transport, among other investments.
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“We
help the government in social areas in the provinces of Cabinda and
Zaire,” says Escom administrator Helder
Bataglia. “We also support some government projects
in areas such as capital risks and international trade. The financial
support for these projects comes from our banks.”
The air cargo firm Air Gemini, the cash-and-carry operation, and the
Starfish fishing concern are joint ventures with Angolans. Mr Bataglia
says: “The idea is to make Angolan businessmen the managers of
these so that they gain know-how.”
He adds: “Our investments in distribution have been strategic because
we want to take our products to all of the country. That is why we invested
in Air Gemini, because there are few air cargo transport firms in Angola.
Today we have a fleet of four Boeing 727s.”
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