The Zimbabwe Angola Business Association (Zaba) and Angola’s TAAG Airlines have teamed up to facilitate investment ventures for local business people willing to explore the oil-rich southern African nation.
Zaba, with the backing of the Angolan embassy in Harare, has already helped a number of Zimbabweans clinch lucrative business deals in the former Portuguese colony which has strong political ties with Harare.
The association’s chairman Jack Murehwa told local business people that there were vast opportunities for investment in Angola and the association would soon facilitate visits and participation at various fairs in the Southern African nation.
“It’s a very broad-based country where people can invest in any sector of the economy,” Murehwa said at an orientation meeting for local businesses willing to venture into the Angolan market.
“The opportunities in Angola are just amazing.”
Major investment opportunities were in sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, mining as well as human capital development although the language barrier was an inhibiting factor.
Murehwa said the association would soon in bring in the Angola Nation Private Investment Agency (Anip), an equivalent of the Zimbabwe Investment Authority, to share experiences on investing in that country with local companies and business people.
He said investment facilitation in the southern African nation was done at a much faster pace than in Zimbabwe.
TAAG director, Titos Chapfugama said the carrier would fly local business people at a discount of between 15 and 20 percent to promote cross border investment between the two countries.
“Angolan Airlines is eager to assist Zaba,” he said. “Currently we have been ferrying informal sector people to Luanda and back to Harare.”
TAAG is Angola’s national carrier.
Local business people who attended the meeting, however, urged the airline to increase the frequency of its flights between the two countries as it was currently flying once a week between Harare and Luanda.
“If we have the numbers, we are planning to have a second flight midweek,” said Chapfugama.
While Zaba was currently focused on Zimbabweans investing in Angola, acting Angolan ambassador Eduardo Kondua said a similar association would soon be established in Angola.
“We will soon have an officer who will organise Angolan businessmen to come and invest in Zimbabwe,” he said.- The Source
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