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CPLP: Business confederation hails Angola’s stress on economy, investment bank
6:56 CAT | 19 Jul 2021
Photo: Lusa
The president of the Business Confederation of the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CE-CPLP) has expressed “satisfaction” that Angola, as the new holder of the rotating presidency of the CPLP, has declared its intention of prioritising economic ties and talked of creating an investment bank, which the confederation has been calling for since 2014.
Speaking to Lusa by telephone, after the conclusion of the 13th Conference of Heads of State and Government of the CPLP, which was held on Saturday in Luanda and at which Angola took on the presidency, the confederation’s president, Salimo Abdula, said that it was with “satisfaction” that he had heard the announcement from Angola’s president, João Lourenço, about plans for an economic ‘pillar’.
“We want to congratulate Angola,” Abdula said. “We know that it wants to invest in a fourth pillar … the economic one, and on business cooperation, exactly what the Business Confederation of the CPLP [CE-CPLP] has been developing in recent years,” he said, adding that the idea of creating an investment bank, as proposed by Lourenço in his inaugural speech as holder of the presidency, “is welcome, it is in fact a project that the Business Confederation has been developing for some time.”
Abdula, who is from Mozambique, recalled that in 2014 there was a conference in Lisbon attended by representatives of central and commercial banks from almost all CPLP member states, “under the coordination and leadership of the Confederation, with the aim of studying an investment or development bank, which could support the integration of companies and not only, but also the needs for investment in infrastructure in a large part of the countries” mainly in Portuguese-language countries in Africa.
While acknowledging that this type of project is complex and takes time to implement, Abdula noted that the confederation had at the time made a proposal for the CPLP to go ahead and create such a bank.
“That was during the East Timor presidency, in 2014,” he said. It “took some time” to respond but, when it did, it gave a “positive” response, yet to date nothing has moved forward.
The CE-CPLP did not, however, give up on the idea, according to Abdula.
“We have consulted some states about what type of bank would be acceptable, whether with mixed capital or public capital, and the trend is towards mixed capital, that is public and private,” he said, explaining it would thus be “a bank with less political interference, with a more impartial governance, in order to ensure the interests of all countries across the board.”
More recently, the confederation took up the issue again, at a business summit it organised in May in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, a CPLP member since 2014, which Abdula noted was attended by “some political leaders”.
According to the confederation president, “there was a positive manifestation from the government of Equatorial Guinea that it would look at this project” and several commercial banks also showed interest.
“Now we have heard this announcement from Angola and we are pleased” because “it will boost the CPLP investment bank project,” he said, adding that it would “have our full support as the business confederation of the CPLP.
“The CPLP in all these years has been more of a CPLP focused on political elites,” he argued.
Abdula said that the CE-CPLP had been the driving force behind the idea, but with the aim of the bank being “a CPLP project, regardless of who is leading or coordinating it.
The CPLP on Saturday marked its 25th anniversary in Luanda, at a summit in which an agreement aimed at easing travel between the nine member states was signed, as well as concrete proposals to boost economic and business cooperation.
Angola, beginning its two-year term as holder of the presidency, announced its aim of creating an investment bank, an idea that Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said could move forward if there was significant investments from several parties.
The CPLP’s members are Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and Sao Tome and Principe.
Source: Lusa
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