Angola’s transport minister told Lusa on Monday that the government would continue with the concessions of ports and railways to make the sector more competitive while maintaining public investment.
Ricardo Viegas de Abreu was speaking to Lusa about the strategic importance of the railroad lines, for which public tenders will be launched, as well as the ports, which the government also wants to make competitive via concessions.
In relation to the Lobito corridor, which has already been awarded to Portugal’s Mota-Engil, Switzerland’s Trafigura and Belgium’s Vecturis, and which will be responsible for running the rail freight transport between Lobito (Benguela) and Luau (Moxico) for 30 years, crossing Angola from end to end, he said that the assets would be formally transferred to the consortium next July.
The minister noted the strategic importance of the corridor for Angola and neighbouring countries, specifically the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, as well as the Atlantic and other African regions and said that the members of the consortium “are aware of the challenges on the other sides of the border”.
“The dynamism of the corridor will make it possible for other effects to happen in our economy,” he said, pointing to the interest in investment in areas such as minerals, agriculture and the steel industry.
Abreu noted that all of Angola’s railroads were linked to ports and that the concern was to extend them to the borders. So far, only the Benguela railroad reaches DR Congo, but the aim is for the Moçâmedes railway to also reach Namibia and Zambia.
This will be the second rail concession to be launched via a public tender, after Lobito, but the transport minister said that the complexity would be lower “as the economic foundations, such as mineral resources or ornamental rocks, are in Angola and do not depend on neighbouring countries.
In terms of public investment, the priority projects are the rehabilitation of the Zenza section of the Itombe-Cacuso (Luanda railroad), a “critical” section that will make it possible to increase the average speed to Malanje, and the construction of the railway that will link Luena (Moxico) to Saurimo (Lunda Sul) over 256 kilometres.
In total, the two projects are expected to take around four years and cost around US$2.3 billion, he told Lusa, adding that the linking of the three existing railways, “which will have a great impact at a national level,” was also being studied.
Also, with regard to ports, the aim is to ensure private sector involvement to have “better operations, more quality service and international competitiveness” with international partners that, according to Abreu, are important to ensure greater mobilisation of cargo.
The Lobito multipurpose terminal is in the process of formalising the concession, while the Luanda multipurpose terminal was awarded the concession in 2020 to multinational DP World based in Dubai.
A port and a rail link to the Luanda railway are also due to be built in the Dande bar, north of Luanda, where a free trade zone is being developed via a public-private partnership.
Lusa
