The Angolan Minister of Finance told Lusa that she had received ‘signs’ in Washington that the United States (US) remains committed to the Lobito Corridor, despite cuts in aid to Africa dictated by US President Donald Trump.
In an interview with Lusa on Friday in the US capital, on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Minister Vera Daves said she had seen public statements and social media posts from the US administration reiterating its commitment and business vision for the Lobito Corridor, adding that this was evident in the meetings she held this week in Washington.
The minister rejected the idea that Trump was distancing himself from the African continent, ‘at least as far as this initiative [the Lobito Corridor] is concerned’.
‘We received signs of this during the meetings we had. I am not just talking about publications, I am talking about the words of the people we met with and who were present at some of the round tables we participated in. So I think the political commitment remains,’ she said.
Vera Daves said she had participated in several round tables on the Lobito Corridor and its potential, where she also felt ‘that European interest remains alive’ in this project, both from the European Union and from bilateral countries.
Italy, she said, was one of the countries that expressly mentioned its political commitment to the Corridor.
‘We also feel positive signs from the United States, which means that there is still interest in the Corridor,‘ she reinforced.
‘We advocate an approach that does not focus solely on the railway line and the transport of minerals. But above all, we want to transform the entire area into an economic hub, taking advantage of the potential related to agriculture, tourism and industry,’ she explained.
In this regard, the Angolan mission called on the World Bank Group to work together ‘with a view to identifying other infrastructure needs’ and, in partnership with the private sector, to attract private investment so that ‘businesses emerge and jobs are created’ around the line.
The Lobito Corridor is a 1,300-kilometre railway infrastructure that crosses Angola, connecting the port of Lobito (on the coast) to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo to transport critical minerals from the Copperbelt (DRC) and Kolwezi (Zambia) regions.
The operation is run by Lobito Atlantic Railway (a consortium comprising Portugal’s Mota-Egil, Switzerland’s Trafigura and Belgium’s Vecturis) and is expected to involve an investment of almost US$1 billion, partly financed by the US financing agency Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
The Donald Trump administration recently announced cuts to various forms of aid to Africa, including the suspension of some USAID projects linked to the Lobito Corridor and aimed at supporting women farmers.
Analysts have warned that the recent freeze on humanitarian and development aid by the United States could bring southern African countries, including Angola and Mozambique, closer to China.
Regarding relations with Beijing and Washington at a time when the trade war between these two powers is intensifying, Vera Daves assured that Angola ‘does not have to have favourite friends’ and that ‘it is a sovereign country, which has partners and has the legitimacy to relate to any sovereign nation’, although it ‘likes to have good relations with everyone’.
Still on her trip to Washington, Vera Daves admitted that she asked the IMF about options for new programmes with that financial institution, indicating that she felt ‘openness’ from the IMF to this possibility, although she stressed that these are still informal talks.
‘We still have to work to look at the options available and possible amounts. It is all still very informal, no formal request has been made by the government. But even so, informally, we will start sharing some information so that the Ministry of Finance will then be in a better position to advise the government on the way forward, depending on the weaknesses and cash flow needs we have,’ the minister explained, without giving further details.
When asked by Lusa whether a trip to the markets was on the table, Daves denied this possibility for now.
Lusa
