International Financial Institutions Unite to Finance Structuring Projects in Angola
Deutsche Bank and the Development Finance Corporation (DFC) met yesterday in Luanda with the Minister of Transport. During this working meeting, the German bank and the American financial institution ensured both the availability of funds and the interest in jointly contributing to the construction of structuring projects in Angola, particularly in the transport sector. Projects implemented by private sector companies – individually or organized in a consortium – are eligible for this financing.
The Angolan official made a detailed presentation on the financing needs for the continuity of the implementation of the National Master Plan of the Transport and Road Infrastructure Sector in partnership with private entities, highlighting three essential projects. The connection between the three country’s railways (Luanda, Lobito and Moçâmedes) in Malanje-Kuito-Menongue; the construction of the Luena-Saurimo railway line; and the construction of two new airports in the regions of Cazombo and Mavinga, because they are regions with high tourist potential and with privileged border locations.
Ricardo Viegas D’Abreu also recalled the Government’s commitment to the regulation of the sector he presides over, so that multinational companies could look at projects as unique investment opportunities. “So far, and to give substance to our Master Plan, we have carried out an extensive set of structural reforms, namely the creation of a new architecture of regulatory bodies (ANAC, AMN, ANTT, ARCCLA andINIPAT), which allow the State to focus on its role as supervisor, regulator, overseer and defender of a true market economy, promoting a strong participation of the private sector, because strong regulators make strong sectors,” he stressed.
At the end of the meeting, Marlena Hurley, responsible for the area of insurance and reinsurance of political risk in the Department of Structured Financing and Insurance of the DFC, said that “the United States wants, in partnership with Deutsche Bank, to identify investment opportunities in specific projects in the transport sector in Angola, in addition to the Lobito Corridor”, remembering that the area it supervises “has the capacity to guarantee and minimize the cost of financing that companies need, as well as to minimize the political risk associated with the country by being covered by the corresponding insurance”.
With Marlena Hurley was at this meeting Maryam Khosrowshahi, co-responsible for the investment area of Deutsche Bank for Africa, who suggested the holding of meetings in Frankfurt, later this year, between teams of the Ministry of Transport of Angola, private investors and responsible for the financial institution to which it belongs.