Minister praises CPLP's commitment to fight against Covid-19

Lisbon - Angolan minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Maria do Rosário Bragança Sambo has stressed the role of the Community of the Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) in fight against Covid-19 pandemic.

The minister said Friday in Lisbon, Portugal, that the commitment of the CPLP scientific community and its contribution were instrumental in obtaining quick, safe and effective scientific solutions to the pandemic.

The official, who was speaking during a lecture, to mark the 120th anniversary of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Institute of  Universidade Nova de Lisboa, managed by the Angolan Filomeno Fortes, highlighted the CPLP as good example of multilateral cooperation.

To this purpose, she said it was pertinent to invoke the objective of sustainable development 17 regarding the partnership of objectives, recognising the need for inter-sector collaboration among the countries for achieving the UN agenda.

Objective 17, she said, advocates improving regional and international cooperation North South, South South and triangular among all aspects on access to science, technology and innovation and effective capacity building to support the execution of national plans, focusing on reaching the goals of the sustainable development plan.

Maria do Rosário Bragança Sambo stressed that the CPLP Strategic Plan for Multilateral Cooperation, in the fields of Science, Technology and Higher Education for the period 2022/26, defends the use and deepening of cooperation actions.

This is to guarantee access and the future academic, scientific and technological knowledge, as well as for the affirmation of the CPLP in national and international contexts.

The minister mentioned the cooperation among CPLP countries, in terms of all quality assurance in higher education, as one of the great challenges, adding that the quality assurance agencies have shown a growing dynamism in the application of cooperation.

A book entitled "" Serpentes Venenosas de Angola",  by Portuguese specialists was released during the event, attended by several guests, including the Angolan ambassador to Portugal, Carlos Alberto Fonseca.

During the ceremony, several personalities were also honored, including the doctor Luís Gomes Sambo and the musician Barceló de Carvalho (Bonga).

 

Train derails with 205 passengers unhurt

Luanda - A passenger train with four carriages, in which 205 passengers were travelling, from Luanda to Malange, derailed on Friday without causing any casualties. 

According to the Directorate of the Luanda Railways (Caminho de Ferro de Luanda E.P), one of the crew members suffered minor injuries. 

The accident with the Power Car locomotive took place at around 10.30am, at kilometre point 142, nine kilometres from the Zenza do Itombe station, in Kwanza Norte province, without causing any damage to the line. 

In this regard, the CFL management said in a statement to the press that a locomotive had left Luanda to rescue the passengers and continue the journey to Malange. 

"The causes of the accident are not yet known, and the Commission of Inquiry is on its way to the place to find out the cause of the derailment," the statement said. 

Following this, the document said, a technical team from Luanda Railways would travel to the site over the next few hours to assess the situation and if possible begin with the work of railing and removing the damaged equipment. 

Luanda Railways regrets the inconvenience that this occurrence caused to all members of the train. 

The last time this happened was in February of this year, when a train derailed with 14 tanks loaded with petrol and diesel. 

The accident occurred near the Lússue de Baixo neighbourhood, seven kilometres to the southwest of the city of Ndalatando, in Kwanza Norte. 

The Transport Ministry said in a statement at the time that the preliminary results of field tests indicated that the accident was the result of a "criminal act. 

New National Election Commission headquarters due in May

 

Cabinda - The new headquarters of the National Electoral Commission (CNE), whose works are in completion stage, will be inaugurated at the end of next month (May), the MPLA leader João Lourenço has said.

The president of the ruling party announced this during mass rally held Saturday in the capital of the northern Cabinda province on Saturday, as part of his three-day visit to the region.

Delivering his pre-electoral campaign speech, the political leader, who is also President of the Republic, said that with the new headquarters of the CNE, the National Polling Center will also be delivered.

As part of the general elections, scheduled for next August, MPLA leader highlighted the fact that Angolans abroad can vote for the first time and assured that it will not be the last.

João Lourenço said he hoped that, from elections to elections, the number of Angolans voting abroad would increase.

Angola will hold its fifth general elections in 2022, after 1992, 2008, 2012 and 2017 polls.

Angola improves growth by 3.8% this year - Fitch Solutions

Luanda – Consulting firm Fitch Solutions predicts that Angola’s real Gross Domestic Product will accelerate from an estimated 0.6% in 2021 to 3.8% in 2022”

"We predict that Angola's real GDP will accelerate from an estimated 0.6% in 2021 to 3.8% in 2022", states a note, quoted by the Lusa agency as saying.

In the note sent to investors, Fitch Solutions highlights Angola's GDP growth above the consensus forecast of Bloomberg analysts, which points to 2.2% in 2022” and better than the consultancy's January forecast, which foresaw expansion of 2.7%.

Analysts at the consultancy Ficth Solutions, a company owned by the same owners of the financial rating agency Fitch Ratings, write, in the revision of the forecast, that “the price of oil will rise from an average of 71 dollars per barrel, in 2021, to 100 dollars this year.

The move will encourage the companies to increase oil production, which is expected to grow by 3.5% this year”.

Oil represents 85.4% of Angola's exports, the rise in price will be positive for public accounts, which will also be helped “by the strengthening of the Kwanza - Angola's currency, in a context of improving trade conditions and reducing inflation at 25.7% in 2021 to 20% this year.”

In the last quarter of 2021, Ficth Solutions had revised downwards the forecast for the evolution of the Angolan economy, predicting a 1.5% recession for this year, and estimated that the country would return to growth only in 2022.

This year, if the country did not experience growth, it would complete the sixth consecutive recession.

In the first week of April (2022), the consultancy Oxford Economics Africa considered that Angola would grow 3% this year, after five years of recession, with oil production growing 5.4%, to 1.18 million euros of barrels per day.

Still, in April, the company specialised in oil information, Petro-Angola, announced that oil production in the country reached, in March of this year (2022), a total volume of 35.4 million barrels per day, representing an increase of 9.5% in relation to the previous period.

Average daily production in March was set at 1.1 million barrels, according to the monthly report published by Petro-Angola, an Angolan company that provides information on oil, gas and renewable energy.

In the General State Budget (OGE) for this year, approved in December, the Government foresees an expansion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 2.4 percent, explained by the prospects of expansion of non-oil GDP and oil GDP of 3 .1 and 1.6 percent, respectively.

The OGE 2022 sets the price of a barrel of oil at 59 US dollars.