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The US-Angola Chamber of Commerce and the
Corporate Council on Africa hosted an Angola Working Group
meeting with the Angolan Ambassador, Josefina Pitra Diakite,
on November 17, 2005 at the Washington office of BP.
This was the sixth and final Working Group Meeting in 2005.
In
the four and a half years that Ambassador
Diakite has been in Washington, DC, she said that US-Angola
relations have steadily improved. She cited the number of high
level Angolan visitors to the United States, most importantly
the visits of President dos Santos in February 2002 and May
2004 for meetings with President Bush and other high level
Administration officials. Recent visitors have included
the Minister of Finance, Jose Pedro de Morais, and the Vice
Minister of Health, Dr. Jose Van Dunem. Commercial ties
have been strengthened beyond the oil sector. The Boeing
Company had recently signed an agreement with TAAG, the
Angolan national airline, for the sale of six airplanes; an
American company, Atlas Construction, is involved in the
construction of a cement plant in Benguela province; and
Chiquita Brands is actively exploring the possibility of
establishing a banana plantation near the port of Lobito.
Bilateral military cooperation has also grown. A very
successful medical exercise (MEDFLAG), involving Angolan and
American military personnel, took place in Angola in
September.
The
Ambassador stated there were areas that
needed to be developed. More could be done to promote
stronger relations with the Congress, though she pointed out
that two Senators did visit Angola during the year. She hoped
Angola would be able to host a Congressional delegation during
the first half of 2006. although Angola acquired AGOA (Africa
Growth and Opportunity Act) in 2003, the country has yet to
realize significant benefits. One target is to exploit
Angola's abundant supply of sea life. (This corresponds with
the report issued by the Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative in July 2005, which highlighted fisheries as a
potentially lucrative sector for Angola.)
During the discussion period the Ambassador
was asked about the prospective elections in Angola. She
replied that both presidential and parliamentary elections
were expected to be held in the latter part of 2006, though
the timing would depend upon meeting all of the logistical and
registration requirements for the election process to proceed.
On relations wit the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Angola
is not seeking concessional funding from the IMF. The
Government and the IMF had previously discussed the
possibility of negotiating a Policy Support Instrument (PSI),
but this approach had been dropped. The Ambassador emphasized
that the Government was interested in pursuing a dialogue with
the World Bank and that a technical team from the IMF was
expected to
visit Angola at the end of November.
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