By IANS,
Johannesburg : India is a very important partner for Angola as the southern African country starts to move out of the least developed nations list, Angolan Deputy Prime Minister Aguinaldo Jaime has said.
Jaime was speaking as the head of a delegation from Angola at the Africa Investor IPO Summit here Wednesday, hosted in conjunction with the Johannesburg Securities Exchange.
“There is a very dynamic relationship between India and Angola, especially in the oil and manufacturing sectors. The next three years will see a strengthening of that relationship, as the Indian government is supporting efforts to increase investment in Angola,” Jaime said.
He said Angola has a lot of mineral and agricultural potential, which would help its economic revival in the wake of decades of civil war.
“I believe Angola is now at peace across the country. There is no political instability as there was in the past. There are pockets of political dissent, but there has been no violence recently,” Jaime said.
Indian business and government enterprises such as RITES have invested hugely in southern African countries such as Mozambique, South Africa and Botswana in recent years, but investment in Angola was lower because of the political strife there.
Speaking at the same summit, Zemenedeh Negatu, managing partner at Ernst & Young Ethiopia, said the influence of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa by India and China had to be factored into any company decision to go the IPO route.
Negatu said as the current global food crisis continued, India and China were both rapidly moving into agro-industries in Africa with its huge potential.
Raymond Ndlovu, CEO of Noah Financial Innovation, said the FDI styles of India and China in Africa were very different.
“China’s style is to take a direct stake in a company and it does not opt for IPO, while India seeks out opportunities in host government organisations,” he said.