Luanda — The Public Works minister of Guinea Bissau, Rui Araújo Gomes, carried out last Wednesday and Thursday a two-day work visit to Benguela Province, meant to assess the government's efforts focussed on national reconstruction and the improvement of people's living standards, since the end of the armed conflict.

Accompanied by the Angolan deputy minister of Public Works, Joanes André, and by the provincial governor of Benguela, Dumilde Rangel, the Guinean minister visited the rehabilitation projects and widening of the interregional 105 motorway (Benguela/Quilengues/Cacula/Lubango), as well as the construction of Catumbela avenue.

Rui Araújo Gomes, who toured Benguela/Lobito motorway works, the construction of the bridge over Catumbela river, as well as the central treatment of drinking water, also learnt of the construction of a professional training centre, which according to information he got will cater for 300 students every year, in the domains of civil construction and public works. Addressing the press at the end of the trip, the minister said he was impressed about the Angolan government's engagement in the construction and rehabilitation of social infrastructures destroyed by war. The visiting Guinea Bissauan official said that his visit to Angola served to establish partnerships between the two countries, mainly on staff training, as well as in civil engineering and public works.

Meanwhile, he stay he has already met with the Angolan Prime Minister, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos "Nandó", and with his Angolan Public Works minister, Higino Carneiro.