Portugal’s exports of goods to Angola in the first eight months of 2022 were up 50.8% on the same period a year earlier, at approximately €890 million, according to Portugal Global – Trade & Investment Agency (AICEP). The figures were published today in Luanda by AICEP’s delegate in Angola, João Falardo, who was speaking at the fifth Angola-Portugal Meeting, organised by the Portugal-Angola Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIPA). In terms of Portugal’s imports from Angola (mainly mineral fuels), these were up 506.4% to €438 million. Angola is the ninth-largest market for Portuguese goods exports, up one place from 2021, and is 27th in terms of suppliers of goods to Portugal (up from 48th in 2021). The AICEP official noted that the bilateral relationship between Portugal and Angola, “is going through an excellent period” and should be accompanied “by increasingly dynamic trade activity.” In Angola, there are currently 1,300 companies that are fully or partly Portuguese owned, in sectors such as construction, agri-food and agri-industry, banking, metallo-mechanical, insurance, information and communication technologies, energy, health, transport and logistics, said Falardo. “The economic diversification policy of the Angolan government should be seen by Portuguese companies as a source of business opportunities” that represent “mutual benefits and shared wealth,” for both sides, he stressed.
The chairman of CCIPA, João Traça, noted that the “Covid hangover” also coincided with a time when a “new cycle of economic growth” is beginning that is set to be associated with the diversification of the Angolan economy. “It is thus up to businesspeople and, in this particular case, businesspeople from Angola and Portugal, to be the players in this cycle and establish the necessary partnerships to seize the opportunities that diversification will bring,” he said. The CCIPA, which this year celebrates its 35th anniversary, aims to be an “accelerator” for these partnerships and opportunities, contributing to the sharing of information to make investment decision-making processes easier, Traça added. The event was attended by representatives of some of the biggest Portuguese companies operating in Angola, including Angonabeiro (a subsidiary of Delta, Portugal’s leading coffee company), banks Caixa Angola and Millennium Atlântico, and insurance company Fidelidade.