(Bloomberg) -- Angola expects US President Joe Biden’s visit next month to help bolster foreign investment, as the nation tries to diversify its economy away from oil and reduce its dependence on Chinese capital.
Tete Antonio, Angola’s foreign affairs minister, said the trip is a “very good” indicator of the relationship between the two countries. Biden will travel to Germany and Angola from Oct. 10 to 15, in his first trip abroad since withdrawing from the US presidential race in July.
“It will attract attention to Angola,” Antonio, said in an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday. “Many people will look at Angola as a destination to go to and to invest.”
For decades, Angola has relied on Chinese loans to rebuild roads, hospitals and public housing after it emerged from a devastating civil war in 2002. It owes China around $17 billion, mostly in the form of oil-backed loans.
While Angola’s relationship with China remains “good,” the minister said the country needs to turn to the private sector for growth.
“We believe that the private sector is really an engine for what the ambitions the country has for development,” said Antonio.
The US-backed Lobito corridor, a railway project that will haul critical minerals from central Africa’s copper belt to an Atlantic port in Angola, is expected to be one of the highlights of Biden’s trip to Angola. The railway, stretching 1,300 kilometers, is seen as Washington’s answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Africa.
For Antonio, the multibillion project is an example of the type of investments African nations need to bolster trade, exports and create jobs. The minister said these projects will help Angola and other nations shift from just producing and exporting raw materials into manufacturing.
“It’s a paradigm shift,” said Antonio. “It brings a lot of opportunities in different areas, not only for transportation, but also areas like agriculture and the transformation of the raw materials.”
Before the 1975-2022 civil war, Angola was a major exporter of coffee, sisal, corn, bananas and cotton, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Today, Africa’s second-biggest oil producer relies on crude for more than 90% of its exports and imports most of its goods from abroad.
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