Dan Mozena, U.S. Ambassador to Angola

One of America’s most enduring foreign policy commitments is to the extension of democracy. Angola’s upcoming legislative elections, the first since a 1992 poll plunged the country back into civil war, are a brave step taken by a newly confident people eager to put past conflicts behind them. U.S.-Angolan ties are more than political, however; they are increasingly economic, with the Angolan oil, infrastructure, and agriculture sectors becoming attractive for American direct investment.

Dan Mozena has served as the American ambassador to Angola since January 2008. While he has come to Angola at a new stage of its development, he has spent most of his thirty years in the Foreign Service in southern Africa. Asked what lessons he can share from his long career in the region, Ambassador Mozena sounds a cautionary note. “I see one key lesson, and that is that development is not easy. It sounds simplistic but it’s a very critical understanding”, he explains. “There are no shortcuts for development; it takes time, persistence, and patience.”

One major contribution to that development is Angola’s growing exports to the U.S. Led by the oil sector, the country’s trade surplus with its American partners is helping stabilize the economy and create a pool of Angolan capital for the country’s strategic development. The numbers are encouraging: from exporting barely $3.1 billion to the U.S. in 2001, America-bound exports shot up to $8.5 billion in 2005 and $12.5 billion in 2007 — quadrupling in just six years.

Angola’s government views the diversification of the economy as the country’s next great challenge. Ambassador Mozena agrees, and understands the hurdles that Angola faces in spreading prosperity throughout the economy. “There is a real challenge for Angola to diversify this economy, to ensure that the tremendous resources being generated by the exportation of rich oil, gas, and diamond resources come to benefit the people of Angola more and more.”

Ambassador Mozena is bullish on Angola’s prospects. Looking forward, he views agriculture as the greatest untapped — and often overlooked — opportunity for international investors. “I would say the potential is unbelievably huge. When an American businessman asks me ‘Where should I be looking to invest?’ my answer is agriculture. Processing, agricultural production, vegetables. You name it, this country can have it.”