Much of Angola’s post-war economic success has been based on credit lines from Portugal, Brazil and China. Carlos Feijó speaks to The Africa Report about the future of Angola’s foreign relations.
What are Angola’s intentions in terms of buying up Portuguese assets?
What I can tell you right now is that we are just thinking about it, but we did not decide yet if we are going to buy something there. As you know, we, I mean Sonangol and other private-sector companies, have someinterests in Portugal, and of course, as a government, we are following it.
We expect to receive the Portuguese primeminister [Pedro Passos Coelho] here in Angola next month [November], and of course at that time we are going to discuss some aspects, like interests in Portugal and ways we can help Portugal as well. Why not?
Are there any particular sectors being targeted?
What I can say is that we are interested in Galpand that’s something that we are going to resolve. I know that some individuals here in Angola are interested in EDP [Energias de Portugal], the energy company in Portugal, as well.
What about Portuguese state broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP)?
I cannot tell you that we are interested in RTP. This is something that we can maybe analyse, but Idon’t think it’s our top priority.
People are talking about this as a role reversal, with the former colony buying up its old master, do you agree?
[Laughs] I’ve heard about this, I’ve heard people saying this. What I can tell you is that I think that each country is respecting its own interests and is just following its own interests.
So I can’t really call it a role reversal. Many Angolans have business interests in Portugal, but also a lot of Portuguese people are here in Luanda doing business. So it’s a reciprocity, which is something good for both countries.
We have a strategic partnership in terms of the state, in terms of government, and we are in the same community as you know, both in the CPLP [Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa].
How important was the visit of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff to Angola on 20 October?
It is important for us. In political terms, we also have a strategic partnership with Brazil, but the most interesting question that we are going to discuss with President Dilma is to maybe increase the credit line that we have with Brazil.
As you know, for a lot of areas that we are rebuilding in Angola, we are receiving financial support from Brazil and that is why we are going to discuss if it’s possible or not to increase the credit line that we have now.
We are rebuilding our country and I think we have completed the first phase of our reconstruction.
What we just need is an increase so we can continue to rebuild the country, and that’s why we need the financial support from companies who have the opportunities to give it.
What sort of increase are you looking for?
It depends which kind of project we’re going to include. Right now our credit line is about $1bn [N.B. Figures from the Brazilian embassy in Luanda indicate the total is $3.2bn], so if we could double that, it would be good.
Do you have any specific projects in mind?
No, we are just preparing and looking at different projects that we should include.
Do you think President Dilma will be a friend to Africa like her predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva?
I have no doubt about that. I think President Dilma is following what Lula did, at least in relation to Africa.
People talk about a competition between Brazil and China in Angola, do you agree?
What I can tell you is that each country defends its interests. We are defending our interests, China is defending its interests and Brazil and other Western countries, too.
Yes, there is competition but it’s good for us to have competition because it means we are going to get a better price.
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