ANGOLA Do You Recognize This Nation?
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Special AdvertisingSpecial Advertising Supplement Supplement May/June 2009 www.peninsula-press.com ANGOLA Do you recognize this nation? The war is long over. Spurred by spectacular economic growth and on the heels of landmark elections, Africa’s new powerhouse is safe, stable, and abuzz with investment as it rebuilds for prosperity based on more than oil alone. Emerging counterweight Within the Southern Africa Development Community to the main regional power, South Africa Economic clout Brings political stability, as demonstrated by the parliamentary elections of September 2008 with resounding victory of the ruling party MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) High-flying optimism Angolan investors are now looking farther afield. Today’s Angola is an emerging power whose own firms are beginning to make moves overseas Special Advertising Supplement Special Advertising Supplement Introduction DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS NATION? Five new investment proposals daily. Double-digit economic growth. Globally lauded legislative elections. Ascension to the top rank of oil-exporting countries. A triumphal visit from the pope. And an emerging tourist destination where, next year, the elite of African soccer will gather to compete for continental glory. Do you recognize this nation? This is Angola, today. Angola’s story of success is in the num - UNITA fighters still occupied some zones of the government of President José Eduardo With economic clout has come political regional hegemony. It has played a key role monitors global corruption, ranks Angola bers. In the last two years, its real gross the country, and oil production—despite dos Santos, and to achieve this goal, it stability, as demonstrated by the parliamen - in stabilizing the political situation in the 158th out of 180 nations. The capital, domestic product (GDP) grew by about being relatively protected offshore—stood has welcomed companies from China, tary elections of September 2008. Under the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Luanda, is bursting at the seams with people, 21 percent and 15 percent, respectively, at barely one-third of current levels. Portugal, Brazil, the United States, watchful eyes of numerous foreign obser - Angolan funds and companies have a the traffic is unbearable, and external signs according to recent government and IMF Now, fast-forward to Angola today. and elsewhere. Every day, the investment vers, the ruling MPLA (Popular Movement grow ing presence in the so-called PALOPs, of wealth mix with pockets of poverty. estimates. Even in 2009, with oil prices Inflation has been tamed, at around promotion agency ANIP receives new invest- for the Liberation of Angola) earned a re - or Portuguese-speaking African countries. Energy and water distribution need to be lower and a global slowdown in effect, 10 percent. Cash reserves are an estimated ment proposals. sounding victory in a field of 14 parties and A strong symbol of Angola’s progress improved, and the cost of housing is very the economy is expected to grow in the US$20 billion. You can freely and safely Today’s Angola is an emerging power coalitions. will come next January, when it hosts one high. high single digits. travel the length and breadth of the whose own firms are beginning to make World leaders haven’t waited to welcome of the continent’s largest parties —the Yet, corruption and the shortages of Oil discoveries continue apace. Last country. Infrastructure is being restored on moves overseas. The national oil giant So - Angola back into the fold. Diplomatic ties African Cup of Nations, a prelude to physical and human capital are only part of year, Angola passed Nigeria to become a massive scale. The Paris Club accounts nangol has acquired a 10 percent share in with all the major powers are strong, and soccer’s World Cup, to be held a few the picture, as Angola puts behind it the Africa’s largest oil producer, with crude-oil have been settled; banking and commerce Millennium Bcp Bank. Sonangol also has a high-level visits are frequent. Pope Benedict months later in South Africa. horrors of war and surges toward prosper - exports reaching 2 million barrels per day. are flourishing. 45 percent stake in Amorim Energia, which XVI’s March 2009 visit to Angola Clearly, these are Angola’s best days since ity. “Angola has invariably been seen as a This Angola is radically different from the And all this in just over six years. Angola in turn controls 33.4 percent of Galp Ener - carried special symbolic force—in an independence in 1975. But there is still a long country of war, of disasters, and of corrup - Angola of 2002, when the civil war ended. today is in the throes of intense change. With gia. Angolan firm Santoro Holding has overwhelmingly Catholic country where way to go. The business environment remains tion, which is not true today,” says Mário Then, the economy was paralyzed: There foreign investment booming, the country— taken a stake in Banco BPI. These invest- the church, in the past, had frequently laden with bureaucratic hurdles, and— Cirilo de Sá, who runs Angola’s Center for were no cash reserves, inflation had soared its roads and services once ravaged by war ments have been centered in Portugal, critici zed the MPLA. a legacy of the civil war—there is a shortage Strategic Studies. “But that’s the image to 300 percent, and debt to the —has become a huge and busy construction the former colonial power. But Angolan On the African continent, Angola’s rise of highly skilled labor and administrative people see, and so we must work very hard Paris Club stood at US$2.3 billion. Rebel site. Redevelopment is the top priority for investors are now looking farther afield. provides a counterbalance to South Africa’s capacity. Transparency International, which to change that.” 2 — ANGOLA ANGOLA — 3 Special Advertising Supplement Special Advertising Supplement Foreign Policy ALL ROADS LEA D TO AN GOLA Since independence, Angola’s political course has been driven by intense geopolitical forces, with the stakes little short of survival. First the Cold War, and then the fight against apartheid, threw the country into conflict injecting its politics with ideology. Then, once peace came to the region, the 1992 election backfired when the rebel movement UNITA, dissatisfied with the results, reignited a civil war that would last another decade. But now, seven years after the definitive end golan oil exports finance a Chinese line of of civil war in 2002, a re-emerging Angola— credit that has resulted in massive infrastruc - flush with oil resources and politically ture and housing works in the country. stable, as demonstrated by last year’s peaceful But Angola’s relations with Portugal, the and widely praised parliamentary elections — former colonial power and a major trading is taking its place on the world stage guided partner, are just as strong —as demonstra - by the simplest, most effective principle of ted by the March 2009 visit to Lisbon by all: pragmatism. Angola’s president, José Eduardo dos San - Angola’s needs are pressing and intense. Its tos, and the establishment of a US$1 billion war-ravaged infrastructure is grossly insuffi - Angola-Portugal investment bank. Angola cient to handle its immense resource potential is reaching out to other EU nations as well; and to serve its young and growing popula - France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, visited tion: 60 percent of Angolans are under age Luanda last year. Russia, India, Israel, and 20, and the population is projected to triple others have all expanded trade and politi - from 15 million to 45 million by 2050. cal ties with Angola in the last few years. Repudiating the Marxist leanings of the Against this backdrop, the United States nation’s early days, Angola has chosen the is lagging. The tenor of U.S.-Angola rela - Jacob Zuma set to sional oil producer appears to linger among with China, it welcomes closer relations regional polls. Yet the ruling party’s overall free market—and now needs the physical and tions is good, but they remain shallow com - become president. policy-makers. with the United States and other partners. popularity is not in doubt. social investments that will let the economy pared with Angola’s European and Chinese And with the situa - With other partners taking a role in de - It has taken steps to align itself with Wes - Nor are the challenges that this emer - flourish and deliver prosperity for all. ties , and to the longtime role of U.S. com - tion in Zimbabwe still a tinderbox, Ango - veloping Angola’s onshore economy —from tern standards on economic management ging giant faces on the way to fulfilling the Angola’s assumption of the OPEC pre - panies in the country such as Chevron. la —which tamed hyperinflation earlier this the billions of dollars of Chinese infrastruc - and governance, inviting IMF review of go - potential of its immense natural resources sidency, two years after joining the group, Beyond safeguarding oil supplies —Angola decade, and which has successfully integra - ture projects to Portugal’s estimated 10,000 vernment finances even though it does not and delivering broad-based growth to a po - caps its rapid ascendancy among oil produ - is the United States’ sixth-largest crude-oil ted the ex-rebel UNITA into the political businesses operating in the country —and have an IMF program in place and moving pulation recovering from a generation of ci - cers. But the recent volatility of oil prices supplier —Angola never assumed a high arena —serves as a model of peaceful poli - Angolan interests led by the highly regarded to open the books on oil revenue flows. vil war. Initiatives that will help Angola underscores the fragility of relying on one priority under the Bush administration.