The Eurafrican Forum, which has just taken place, has put the spotlight on the Council of the Portuguese Diaspora that organised it. The council is composed of influential Portuguese business people, based outside their home country, who are looking to extend lusophone influence in Africa.
The fourth edition of the Eurafrican Forum, which took place via video link from 20 to 22 October, was the venue for a conversation lasting nearly an hour between Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and his Angolan opposite number João Lourenço. Their exchange was followed by an address given jointly by Portuguese foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva and José Manuel Barroso, the former European Commission president and Portuguese prime minister who is today non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International.
Despite a name and list of guest speakers that indicate that it wanted to be a pan-European and pan-African event, most of those attending were Portuguese political figures. Portuguese political and economic circles occupy pride of place at the event, which, since 2018, has been a major date in the calendar of the Council of the Portuguese Diaspora (CDP, Conselho da Diáspora Portuguesa).
Little developed African network
Not that well known to the general public, this organization, which organizes grand annual dinners for Portuguese decision-makers, is a network of nearly 100 “advisers”, comprising influential Portuguese businessmen and women established in Africa and the rest of the world. Headed since May by Antonio Calçada de Sa, executive managing director of the Repsol Foundation, it was set up in 2012 at the initiative of business magnate Filipe de Botton, a key figure in Portuguese business circles. He heads family-owned Logoplaste, which specializes in the manufacture of oil-based products. That company is managed by De Botton’s long-standing partner, Alexandre Relvas, a former Portuguese secretary of state for tourism who ran Anibal Cavaco Silva’s successful presidential election campaign in 2006.
Despite the CDP’s interest in Africa, its contacts network there is relatively little developed. Out of nearly 100 members of the council all told, only seven are based in Africa – in Angola, Mozambique, Senegal and South Africa. Their numbers are growing, however. Among those who are in Africa are Faizal Ussene, who has been head of the Imexco group in Angola since the end of the 1990s. Another key figure in Angola is banker Luis Teles, chief executive of Standard Bank Angola.
In South Africa, the council is represented by Carlos Pone, the former head of African business at American engineering company AECOM, and Pedro Pereira da Silva, chief executive at leading African distribution group Pick n Pay Retail. In Dakar, the CDP is represented by Gonçalo Terenas, chairman of the Senegalese-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce.
Direct line to Lisbon
Despite its NGO status and its aim of promoting Portuguese influence throughout the world, the CDP has been working closely with the Portuguese presidency since it was set up in 2012. The president’s office provides it with financial support for its role as a vector of Portuguese influence in the world. Apart from influential business people, the CDP counts among its members senior Portuguese political figures.
Former European Commission president José Manuel Barroso is not only a member; he is chairman of its board. Without having any official position in the CDP, other high-ranking Portuguese personalities at the head of different international bodies also take part in the events it organises. Among them are Antonio Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations and a former Portuguese prime minister, and Ricardo Mourinho Félix, vice president of the European Investment Bank and a former Portuguese secretary of state for finance.
