Province of Zaire Angola’s second-biggest oil producer after Cabinda is working to rebuild its infrastructure, for which national government funds are needed

Oil will fuel reconstruction drive
PROVINCE OF ZAIRE Angola’s second-biggest oil producer after Cabinda is working to rebuild its infrastructure, for which national government funds are needed

il dominates the economy of the province of Zaire in the far north of Angola, but governor Ludy Kissassunda hopes investors will help to develop the potential of other sectors.
“Besides petroleum, we have diamonds, phosphates, timber, fisheries and agriculture,” he says. However, the development of non-oil activities has been delayed by the conflict.
Zaire’s importance as Angola’s second oil-producing province, after Cabinda, made it a strategic target during the fighting.
“Unita was trying to wage war in this province to destabilize petroleum exploration,” says Mr Kissassunda. “They knew that without stability the oil companies would leave and, consequently, our economy would
be at risk.”

Kissassunda: social

The civil war also damaged the province’s infrastructure and left a legacy of inadequate social services. “The problems of this province arise mainly from the bad state of our roads,” the governor says. The task of reconstruction is under way, but Mr Kissassunda warns that the outcome depends on an end to the fighting, in the rest of Angola as much as in Zaire province itself.
“My opinion is that the future development of the country depends on the total pacification of our territory, but while this cannot be achieved we must not rest and we have to work even harder,” he says.
“Our priority is to improve the social conditions of our people,” he continues. “We are working in a province that was occupied for a long time by Unita. Whenever they occupied a locality they would first destroy the social and economic infrastructure, including schools, bridges, roads and hospitals.”

Generating change
Another important task has been to improve the water supply in municipalities such as Soyo,
Nzeto and Tomboco, as well as the provincial capital, M’Banza Congo.
Efforts to rebuild the infrastructure are hindered by the limited flow of funds from the national government. “This province never had a good infrastructure because we don’t receive enough money from the state budget,” says Mr Kissassunda.
He hopes that the financial problems will ease as Angola moves towards a more decentralized, democratic system of internal government.
The governor believes the oil industry, centered on the area around Soyo, could do more to help Zaire as a whole. “The support we receive from companies in our province has been fundamentally limited to Soyo,” he says. “They have to understand that Zaire is not just Soyo. I do expect the companies that explore for petroleum here to make significant investments for the development of the province.”

That said, Mr Kissassunda is well aware of the oil industry’s importance to the provincial economy. “We hope that, with the discovery of new reserves of petroleum, more firms will invest in our market,” he says.
In the meantime, the provincial government is trying to diversify
the economy, partly by reviving the once prosperous agricultural sector. “We are creating the conditions to expand this sector,” the governor says. The aim is to increase the production of crops such as corn, cassava, bananas, cocoa, cashew nuts, soya beans and peanuts.

Generating change
Mr Kissassunda also wants to encourage more investment in the fishing industry.
“Our coast stretches for 250km and a large share of the best fish in the country come from here,” he says. “We would be happy to forge a partnership with a foreign company in the fisheries sector.”
However, once again the problem is the lack of sufficient infrastructure. Mr Kissassunda believes that the involvement of foreign investors could help the province to overcome this difficulty.
“We are rich in fish, and the company that comes to work with us must invest so that, together, we can create good infrastructure,” he says. “We are ready to work with whoever wants to operate in our province.”