Luanda — Trade between Angola and the Kingdom of Belgium last year reached a total of USD 900 million (one dollar equivalent to 760.89 kwanzas), figures higher than before the period of covid 19, Belgian Ambassador to Angola, Jozef Smets said Friday.
The diplomat made this statement at the end of an audience granted to him by the Vice-President of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA party), Luísa Damião, which took place at the governing party's headquarters, in Luanda.
Jozef Smets added that this was due to the intensifying of relations between the two countries, noting that Angola exported products worth USD 600 million to Belgium, whilst the European partner sold goods worth USD 300 million.
He also said that the transactions were mainly in the areas of ports, airlines and demining, with a focus on the provinces of Uige, Cuanza Norte and Cuanza Sul.
The ambassador of the Belgium Kingdom revealed that during the meeting, issues regarding the organisation of local elections, gender equality promotion, inflation control and the importance of civil society in strengthening democracy had also been addressed.
He also praised the Angolan diplomacy's role in promoting peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where, unfortunately, armed groups are still operating.
On the same day, MPLA's vice-president also received the leader of the Ebenezer Pentecostal Church of God, Rev. Gideão Panzo, who at the end expressed his congregation willingness to contribute to ease social pressure that is considered to be worsened by the reduction of the subsidy on petrol prices and the increase in the cost of living.
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Gideão Panzo said that, despite the fact that the demonstration is enshrined in the Constitution, it is necessary that it takes place in an orderly manner and in obedience to the law, expressing the availability to promote peace and unity so that governors and the citizens can find the best ways to overcome the current challenges.
Still on Friday, Luísa Damião, also received the President of the Northeast Angola Union of the Seventh Day Church, Teixeira Vinte, who asked MPLA's support against an attempt to divide and destabilise the congregation, an intent led by a group called "Ana Leste".
At the end of the meeting, Teixeira Vinte said that the members who broke away accused the board of misusing 50 donated tractors to implement agricultural projects.
The provincial secretary of the Evangelical Congregational Church in Angola (IECA) in the central Bié Province, Martinho Sonjamba José Diogo, who was also received in audience, took the opportunity to ask for the intervention of Luisa Damião in order to support them so that the religious organisation can continue the rehabilitation of places of worship, schools and hospitals built by the mission to help meet some of the needs of the local population.
Meanwhile, to end the audiences with the second person in the leadership of the ruling party, the women leaders of the National Youth Council (CNJ) informed the Vice-President about the preparations for the launch of the first rural town in July, in Bengo Province, in an initiative of cooperatives, according to the group's spokesperson, Jaqueline Saturnino de Oliveira. JFS/SC/MRA/jmc
