Day: May 31, 2023

Angolan minister of Justice and Human Rights Marcy Lopes said Wednesday that Angola has taken significant steps in the fight against corruption, as part of governmental and legislative profound reform.

The minister was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Regional Conference on Combating Corruption, which brings together, in Luanda, the member countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), around anti-corruption priorities.

In his speech, Marcy Lopes said that President João Lourenço made and continues to make the crack down on corruption one of the fundamental aspects of his governance, initiating profound reforms at the governmental and legislative level, as well as the creation of new services dedicated to combat this phenomenon.

The official underlined the presentation of the National Strategy Project for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption (ENAPREC) and its corresponding public consultation from 18 April to 18 May of the current year.

According to him, the approval of ENAPREC aims to achieve, among other objectives, the reduction of corruption rates by promoting integrity, transparency and improving the provision of services in the public and private sectors, transparency in management of public affairs and the involvement of citizens in the prevention and repression of corruption.

Marcy Lopes, who was speaking on behalf of the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, stressed that the fight against corruption is not and should not be viewed as something exclusive and designed for the holders of political offices.

“On the contrary, it must have a wide scope to reach both the top and the bottom of public services. Only in this way will we, in fact, have good governance, a good State and a good society”, said the minister, to whom corruption is an evil that needs to be prevented, monitored and fought.

He appealed to the countries of the SADC region to take measures to, together, overcome the challenge of fighting corruption in an organised, articulated and cooperative way.

“It is necessary that we all look at corruption as one of the main causes of impediment to the development of societies. Only united and coordinated with other countries will we overcome this problem”, he stressed.

According to the organisation, the objective of the conference is to find an agreement on the common roadmap for all SADC members, containing a set of recommendations and commitments for the realization of anti-corruption priorities.

The conference focuses on thematic areas identified as priorities for the SADC region, namely national and regional coordination and public procurement.

The aim is for participating countries to hold, firstly, detailed technical meetings and, secondly, to develop a list of priority commitments to enhance the implementation of a convention in their countries, to be approved at the conference.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Angola’s Vice President of the Republic Esperança Costa proposed Wednesday in Luanda the promotion of literacy in terms of Communication Technologies and Scientific Research in the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP).

Esperança Costa made the proposal while delivering her speech at the opening of the XII Meeting of Ministers of Education of the CPLP, adding that education is solid bases for sustainable development, in the most varied domains within the community.

“The CPLP must, as a whole, continue to be engaged in issues related to education, above all, an education capable of keeping up with the mutations that are operating in terms of technologies”, she stressed.

The Vice President said it was crucial to pay attention to concerted cooperation positions, for specific segments of education.

She mentioned mainly the financial education, education for climate action and education for technologies, with a strong focus on digital technology, in this era of artificial intelligence, the internet and social networks.

In her address, she recognised, however, the existence of countries within the community that are advanced in this matter, and these could, within the framework of closer cooperation, contribute, to a great extent, to the progress of the others.

The Vice President also underlined the need to introduce children to mathematical calculation, languages and ICTs, as well as the ethical component that must be underlying it.

The education must be focused on humanisation , by teaching cooperation and not always competition, she added.

Meanwhile, she said that education must be at the service of development, peace, social harmony and the search for solutions to local, and perhaps global, problems.

In the context of the concern to provide better quality to education, the Vice President recalled II Extraordinary Meeting of Ministers of Education in 2022, which approved the Action Plan for Multilateral Cooperation in Education in the CPLP 2022-2024.

From this action plan, Esperança Costa referred to the holding in December 2022 of the II CPLP Seminar on Portuguese as a Second Language for Primary School Teachers, in the first quarter of 2023, of the I Joint Exercise of Inspective Practices in CPLP Education , as well as the holding, last March, of the CPLP Seminar on Good Practices on School Meals.

At the time when Angola took over the Presidency of the CPLP on July 17, 2021, underlined the Vice-President, the country elected the “Strengthening of Mobility among the Member States” and a special attention to the economic sector, as priority topics of its presidency.

Having, however, ratified the “Mobility Agreement” , looking, among other issues, at the advantages it confers in the specific field of mobility of students, teachers, researchers and scientists, within the framework of academic exchange.

On the specific level of education, she advanced that mobility should be seen as a critical axis to enhance and enrich experiences, facilitate mutual recognition and accreditation of studies, among other advantages.

As part of the global partnerships and implementation of the Action Plan, she defended closer ties with international organisations specializing in Education and international financial institutions, reinforcing multilateralism for inclusive development.

The meeting, which brings together members of the CPLP for the area of education, takes place under the theme, “Promotion of Educational Cooperation with a view to the Transformation of Educational Systems in the community”.

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Source: Angola Press News Agency

The government announced a total investment of US$106 for electricity sector by 2050, according to the proposed goal as part of the Long-Term Strategy (ELP Angola – 2050).

The document, which does not show the amounts invested in 2022, predicts that US$15 billion will be invested by 2030 and a total of US$106 billion until 2050.

In order to attain the vision of increasing electrification, it will be necessary to invest in renewable energies and stimulate private initiative in the energy sector.

The strategy points to solutions such as rationalising the system and making it financially sustainable, adjusting tariff subsidies and reducing commercial losses, expanding the on-grid/on-grid system and universalising access to electricity and creating off-grid/off-grid solutions.

In this chapter on solutions, the document indicates that the system will be rationalised to ensure financial sustainability, reviewing tariff subsidies and reducing commercial losses.

As for electricity prices, the ELP refers to a convergence with the real costs of the system.

The ELP has also announced defined that will progressively reduce the level of tariff subsidisation, considering different price models to guarantee a tariff revision that does not compromise the social balance, resorting, namely, to the adjustment of consumption tariffs.

When reviewing tariffs, within the scope of the strategy, vulnerable groups such as low-income families, pensioners and disabled citizens will be taken into account, applying compensatory measures to avoid harmful effects.

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Source: Angola Press News Agency

Angola is busy preparing the Extraordinary Summit of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), scheduled for Saturday (3) in Luanda.

For the preparation, the Angolan top diplomat Téte António and the ambassadors of Zambia, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and representatives from Tanzania and Sudan met on Tuesday in Luanda.

In addition to take stock of the tasks preceding the summit and preparing the agenda, the meeting discussed issues related to the peace and security in the region.

The summit will bring together Heads of State and Government, or their representatives.

The event will also gather entities linked to the African Union Commission, the United Nations Secretariat, the ICGLR, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and the East African Community (EAC).

Created in 1994, following the political and military conflicts that marked the Great Lakes region in the early 1990s, the organisation integrates Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republics of Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.

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Source: Angola Press News Agency