JOÃO BERNARDO DE MIRANDA Minister of Foreign Affairs

Although the United States delayed its recognition of Angola as a sovereign state for eight years after the African nation's independence from Portugal in 1975, business ties between the two countries go way back and diplomatic relations have since flourished. In an exclusive interview, Angolan Minister of Foreign Affairs João Bernardo de Miranda sheds light on the Angola of today and its commitment to fostering an investor-friendly environment.

Several U.S. senators have visited Angola to show support to your government. How would you describe Angolan-U.S. relations today?
First of all, the political relationship has evolved quickly because U.S. oil companies have always been in Angola. From the very first the U.S. was our most important commercial partner. The political relationship began to develop very quickly in 1983 when former President Clinton took the decision to recognize us.

What would be some concrete examples of this new relationship?
We maintain a very narrow political relationship, a sort of political partnership. We didn't diverge from the U.S. point of view on any of the fundamental issues of the Congolese crisis, or the crisis of the Great Lakes area or on the Angolan crisis. There are no divergences and we have a very constructive partnership.
On the economic side we have what we call the Bilateral Advisory Commission that seeks economic cooperation and the reinforcement of our trade relationship.

But doesn't the threat of violence keep potential investors away from Angola?
The largest obstacles to development are the small bands of guerrillas–they sow terror and intimidate the population. They aren’t very organized any longer, but what they achieve is to create panic among the people. They commit terrorist actions and this threat must be removed.
We realize that the United States is an irreplaceable partner in our development bid. The market economy is a fact of life in Angola today and investments are protected forever. We have a competent law that protects foreign investments in the event of disasters, whether natural or man-made. Many U.S. companies are already here, and we are confident that others will follow.

What are the immediate concerns of the government's development plans?
We must offer more jobs to our citizens, and in this sense the agricultural and industrial sectors are the most promising. But the first phase of development depends on rehabilitation. We must restore infrastructure, the bridges and the highways so that the rural population will be motivated to farm because they know their products can be brought to market.