Posted on October, 17, 2019 at 09:58 am
Luanda — Cereals production in Angola has increased in the last two years from 2.87 million to 2.9 million tonnes due to the policies approved by the Angolan Executive for the agricultural sector, the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, affirmed last Tuesday.
Speaking at the opening session of the parliamentary year, President João Lourenço said that besides the cereals, it was also seen an increase in the production of roots and tubers that overcame the number of 10.8 million tonnes in 2017 to 11.1 million tonnes in 2018.
He also informed that for the area of fruit growing there was a progress of 5.2 million in 2017 to 5.3 tonnes in 2018.
Regarding the agricultural sector in the State's General Budget, although still not being enough, João Lourenço said that there was an improvement from 0,4% in 2018 to 1,57% in 2019.
In the 2018/2019 agricultural camapaign, technical assistance was planned for 1.3 million peasant families, out of a total of 2.8 million. At this time 943,000families have already benefited, corresponding to about 72% of what was programmed.
In the area of trade, based on the country's Strategic Food Reserve, the Executive approved the Integrated Rural Trade Development Programme, to improve the flow of domestic production, especially from rural areas, with four products, namely rice, corn flour, wheat and beans.
Also in this sector, a public tender for the exploration of logistics and commercial facilities of the supply market of the Luanda Logistics and Distribution Centre was launched, with the aim to provide the private sector more functionality in terms of commercial and logistics infrastructures.
As for the industry sector, the Head of State said that there was an increase in production of various products such as sugar, which went from 58,000 tonnes in 2017 to about 73,000t in 2018, wheat flour (from 87,000 t in 2017 to 272,000t in 2018), yogurts (from about 784,000 litres in 2017 to 2,080 litres in 2018), and pasta, which went from about 400 tonnes in 2017 to 950 tonnes in 2018.
Under the Construction and Public Works sector, the Road Recovery Plan has been implemented and currently finished 935 kilometres of the primary roads network, 160 of the secondary network and 40 of the asphalted urban network have been rehabilitated, and 28 road bridges have been repaired as well.
Regarding the monetary domain, João Lourenço indicated that inflation continues to be on a downward trajectory and that, over the last 12 months, the inflation rate stood at 17.24%, which is 1.36% points lower than that observed in the same period of 2018, which was 18.6 percent.
"The cumulative inflation rate was 42 percent in 2016 and 23.7% in 2017. The Executive's goal is to continue to implement fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies so that by 2022 Angola can again have a single-digit annual inflation", stressed the angolan Head of State.
This is João Lourenço's third speech in the National Assembly (Parliament) on the state of the nation since taking office on 26 September 2017.
Source: Agencia Angola Press (ANGOP)