The Prime Minister responded Wednesday to calls to support Portuguese small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) operating in Angola, saying they are “already finding a response” in the development of the Portuguese government’s policies and financing instruments.
Luis Montenegro spoke at the closing of the Angola-Portugal Business Forum dedicated to the agri-food sector, as part of an official visit to Angola, which ends on Thursday.
“In addition to the effects of the increase in the Portugal-Angola credit line, which I announced yesterday, by 500 million euros, in Portugal, thanks to the intervention of Banco Português de Fomento, we have a support line for the internationalization of our companies, with funds from European countries – InvestEU – which amounts to 3,600 million euros, of which 2,500 million are allocated specifically to small and medium-sized companies,” he stressed.
In addition, he added, “the government is also keen to help those who were once SMEs to now rise to the large category.”
In his speech earlier at the same Forum, the President of the Angolan Industrial Association (AIA), José Severino, addressed Luis Montenegro directly and asked that when financing companies operating in Angola, they “keep 10% of the shares for SMEs”, stressing that this desire had already been expressed by the Portuguese Ambassador to Angola, Francisco Alegre Duarte.
Businessmen interviewed by Lusa at Filda also complained about the lack of support for exporting SMEs and difficulties in accessing internationalisation and investment programmes, advocating for more targeted solutions for this type of company.
Montenegro considered that these calls had been “answered”, reiterating that the support lines for companies advocating for internationalisation “will have implications for the markets they choose” and that the Angolan market was “very relevant” for Portugal.
The Prime Minister stressed that of the existing funding lines, 711 million euros are intended for “direct investments in research, knowledge, innovation and digitalisation, which are prerequisites for the competitiveness of companies so that they can also go international”.
In its speech, Montenegro wanted to leave words of gratitude and hope for the past, present and future of relations between the two countries.
“My first word is gratitude. Gratitude to the companies, gratitude to the entrepreneurs and gratitude to the workers. To the many thousands of Portuguese workers who are here in Angola today and to the many thousands of Angolan workers who are in Portugal today,” he said, reiterating that Portuguese-speaking citizens have priority entry into Portugal.
On the other hand, he cited the example of two companies he visited today on the outskirts of Luanda, Powergol and Refriango, to express hope for “entrepreneurial capacity, to take risks, to take the products of companies and reinvest them for the benefit of creating new enterprises.”
“Gratitude is above all for what we have already been able to do, and hope is above all for what we will do in the future, and that is the most important thing,” he said, repeating the expression he has used throughout this official visit, that the relations between Portugal and Angola are “relations for all time.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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