UN envoy highlights work against Covid-19

 The United Nations Secretary-General's special envoy for the Great Lakes region, Huang Xia, Thursday said that Angola had provided rapid and effective responses to the fight against Covid-19 and was doing everything to prevent the pandemic from spreading.

Huang Xia, UN special envoy for Great Lakes Region

Speaking at a meeting with the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, Huang Xia said that Angola was an "important partner in the dialogue on global issues.

On the situation in the Great Lakes region, the diplomat highlighted the progress made on integration, peace and stability issues.

"I think that with aid and cooperation there can be more integration and development in the Great Lakes region", Huang Xia noted.

So far, Angola has registered 4,972 Covid-19 cases, including 1,941 recoveries and 183 deaths.

Japan's ambassador bids farewell to the President of the Republic.

Still Thursday, in another meeting, the Angolan head of state, João Lourenço, spoke with the Japanese ambassador to Angola, Hironori Sawada, about issues linked to strengthening cooperation relations between the two countries, in the political, economic and social spheres.

The Japanese diplomat, who bade farewell to President João Lourenço, after four years of mission in Angola, highlighted the advances in cooperation between Angola and his country in the energy, infrastructure, health and telecommunications sectors.

Over the last decade, he said, Japan had become a strategic partner for Angola, where it had strengthened the presence of its companies and financed projects in key sectors of the economy, such as telecommunications.

The Asian country's main assets in bilateral economic cooperation with Angola are rehabilitation and expansion of the Port of Namibe, the recovery of three textile factories and funding for the launch of fibre optic cable, the diplomat noted.

In Angola, Japan has also developed other projects in areas such as demining, infrastructure, agriculture, education and health, he said.

As part of its trade, Angola imports motor vehicles, steel, iron and equipment from that Asian country and mainly exports oil and other raw materials.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in September 1976.