Private enterprise boldly seeks out new opportunities

Amoes: shortages

ngola’s commitment to a command economy following independence slowed but did not entirely prevent the development of a private sector.
Today, businesses such as Grupo Valentim Amoes, a conglomerate with interests ranging from tourism, air travel and car hire to food distribution, refrigeration and paint production, are coming to the fore in the free market economy.
Valentim Amoes, founder and executive chairman of the group, argues that the country needs more private companies. “The market in Angola is very large and I don’t think the actual number of enterprises is sufficient to meet the country’s needs,” he says. “There is a large shortage of goods and products and the capacity to respond to that is low.”
Mr Amoes warns that due to the years of civil war it is not easy to do business in Angola. For a start, setting up a factory or manufacturing company in the interior is not always straightforward and neither is moving goods around.

“It is not possible to go to some provinces by car because of the absence of security and the bad condition of the roads,” he says. The company resorts to using air transport, even taking extra fuel on board.
Even so, Mr Amoes reckons Angola is worth the risk. “I always bet on Angola and I believe the situation in which we’ve lived here cannot affect or undermine our will to invest,” he says.
“If we don’t invest today, when will it be done? If there is a possibility to invest a million dollars, I’ll do it. The risks are not so great, although some situations still have to be resolved, but for the provinces without any risks this is the right time to invest.”

Mr Amoes backed up his words recently by investing $2 million in a zinc plate plant. He argues that the country’s economic potential consists of much more than oil and diamonds.
“Angola is rich in many resources. “In colonial times, Angola developed on the basis of coffee. Other provinces are very rich in all sorts of agriculture and we have other minerals.”
He emphasis the need for Angola to conclude its prolonged dispute with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and reach an agreement on rescheduling overseas debts worth more than $11 billion, and also to secure new loans.
“We produce enough, with oil and diamonds and so on, to develop our country providing we have peaceful conditions, but we do not have enough to pay back our debt,” he says.
“So long as these new loans are disbursed we will have a greater ability to pay our debt and press on with developing every sector of the economy that is in need of capital.”