Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) sets off on a four-day trip to Africa on Monday. Nehammer will take part in an Austrian-Angolan economic forum on Tuesday, after which the Chancellor will meet Angolan President João Lourenço. Nehammer will be accompanied by Minister of Agriculture Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) and a business delegation. Further stops on the journey are Ghana and Egypt.
According to the Federal Chancellery, the focus of the trip is on strengthening bilateral relations in the areas of migration and security as well as on-site assistance. For example, Nehammer is accompanied by Federal Police Director Michael Takacs and Major General Friedrich Schrötter, Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner’s chief of staff (ÖVP) and the Rector of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Eva Schulev-Steindl. “Security and stability on the African continent are in the interests of both parties – for Africa and Europe. As the European Union, we have not dealt with the continent intensively enough for far too long. We have become unilaterally dependent on other countries, such as Russia or China “, emphasized the Chancellor in the run-up to the trip. It is now all the more important “to focus on diversification and to open our diplomatic doors to the Global South – above all to Africa,” said Nehammer.
Another focus of the trip are economic, energy and raw material issues, the Chancellery continued. In addition to the Chamber of Commerce and the Austrian Development Bank, the Chancellor is also accompanied by high-ranking representatives from Frequentis, Andritz Hydro, Komptech, OMV, Plasser & Theurer, VA Tech WABAG, VAMED, Verbund, Voest Alpine Railway Systems GmbH, Wagner-Biro, Pessl Instruments GesmbH, AMET and AMEX. “Especially in the area of economic cooperation, there are win-win situations. Austria is already appreciated, among other things by our companies, which are among the most active in the world. In addition, as a neutral country in the middle of the EU, we are a good door opener for stronger relationships with the African countries,” explained Nehammer.
“Security and stability on the continent can only be achieved through good cooperation partnerships that create prospects for the people in Africa. Because this is the absolute opposite of illegal migration and criminal smuggling, who want to further expand their business models. On the other hand, we must take a clear stand together to ensure security create,” said the Federal Chancellor. “Africa needs site-specific, ecologically and economically viable solutions that we can develop through a mutual exchange. But we also want to learn from each other,” said Totschnig, who will meet his counterpart in Angola in the run-up to the trip.
João Lourenço has been in power in Angola since 2017. The ex-defense minister came to power in 2017 as the successor to José Eduardo dos Santos, who had ruled authoritarianism for 38 years and died in 2022. Until 1975 the country was a Portuguese colony. With independence, the various liberation movements fought for power in the country, which claimed a total of around half a million lives and in some cases turned into an international proxy war against the background of the Cold War. The Marxist MPLA was supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba, UNITA by the South African apartheid regime and covertly, i.e. not approved by the US Congress, by the US foreign intelligence service CIA. Today, the orientation of the MPLA is classified as more social-democratic, that of UNITA as pro-business and more centre-right.
In the most recent general election, President Lourenço and the ruling MPLA party won with 51.7 percent, their worst result ever. Angola’s largest opposition party, UNITA, followed with 44.5 percent, a good 17 percentage points more than in the previous election. However, UNITA failed with a lawsuit against the results of the parliamentary elections and the request for a recount of the votes. The European Union had supported the request. The MPLA’s electoral victory automatically meant a second five-year term for Lourenço. The 69-year-old promised economic reforms, investments in the health sector and an end to widespread corruption.
For years, Angola has been in the top group of the world’s most corrupt countries in relevant lists of international organizations. Ex-President Dos Santos was accused of embezzling large amounts of money to benefit his family and close confidants. His daughter Isabel dos Santos, one of the richest women in Africa, is accused by the Angolan judiciary of embezzling funds while she was at the helm of state-owned oil company Sonangol and investing much of it in Portugal. Isabel dos Santos denies the allegations.
So far, the economy of the former Portuguese colony has been primarily focused on oil, but only a small section of society benefits from the profits. Angola, which is also a member of OPEC, is Africa’s second largest oil producer and exporter after Nigeria. Nevertheless, according to the World Bank, a good 56 percent of the population live in poverty. Between 2010 and 2015, due to the economic crisis in their own country, around 150,000 Portuguese moved to the country on the west coast of Africa, where the economy was booming thanks to rich oil and diamond deposits. Apartment rents in affluent areas of the capital Luanda, which has a population of more than nine million, are now among the highest in the world.
Between 2000 and 2020, Angola received around 39 billion euros in Chinese loans, and more than a quarter of Chinese loans to Africa went to Angola. In 2019, however, President Lourenço admitted that the concept of exporting oil from China to service loans did not work for his country. Angola was no longer able to service its debt due to falling oil prices. As a result, Lourenço focused on diversifying the economy and trading partners. This is a “matter of life or death”, he justified this step.
Angola is also severely affected by the climate crisis. The aid organization CARE reported earlier this year that the south is experiencing the worst drought in 40 years. 3.8 million people do not have enough to eat, 114,000 children under five are malnourished. In addition, Angola is among the four countries with the highest price increases for food such as grain and cooking oil – triggered by the Ukraine war.
Nehammer will open an economic forum in the Ghanaian capital Accra on Wednesday. He will also visit the National Dog Academy and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, both of which are supported by the Austrian Armed Forces. The Chancellor will also meet Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo for bilateral talks. President Akufo-Addo was re-elected in December 2020. The 76-year-old prevailed against his longtime adversary, ex-President John Dramani Mahama.
Ghana, which was the first African country to gain independence from Great Britain in 1957, is considered one of the most stable democracies in the region, but is currently going through a severe economic crisis. The Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war led to a seepage of government revenues that have to be used to service the debt. Companies willing to invest can hardly obtain affordable credit, as the public sector has borrowed so much money in recent years that there is nothing left for the economy. The national debt is now almost 50 billion dollars (45.78 billion euros), which is almost 80 percent of the gross domestic product. Every third teenager and young adult is without a job.
The country with 30 million inhabitants on the African west coast is the world’s second largest cocoa producer and one of the most important gold producers in Africa. Oil has also been an important source of foreign exchange since 2011. 90 percent of the food needed in the country is produced in Ghana. While Ghana was one of the fastest growing economies in Africa just a few years ago, inflation and currency depreciation are now taking their toll.
At the end of his trip to Africa, the Chancellor will meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo. In Cairo, Totschnig will hold talks with Hani Sweilam, the Egyptian Minister for Water and Irrigation. Afterwards, Nehammer and Totschnig, together with the CEOs of the accompanying business delegation and representatives of Austrian companies in Egypt, will take part in a round table with the Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Kamal Madbouli, as well as several Egyptian ministers and business representatives. The plans are then for the companies Voestalpine Railways Systems and Plasser & Theurer to sign contracts with the Egyptian railways.
Al-Sisi has been head of state in the country of 110 million people since 2013. After the fall of long-term ruler Hosni Mubarak, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood party was elected president in June 2012. But after just a year, the military, led by former army chief al-Sisi, overthrew him. In the months that followed, the new leadership cracked down on Morsi’s supporters, killing around 1,400 people.
After South Africa, Egypt is the second most important export market for Austrian companies in Africa. President al-Sisi is trying to create jobs for his rapidly growing population by building large-scale projects, such as building a new capital. The country on the Nile is also affected by the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Egypt has to import 80 percent of the wheat it needs, most of it from Ukraine and Russia. Egypt is also an important partner for Europe when it comes to migration issues. According to the IOM (International Organization for Migration) and UNHCR (UN Refugee Commissioner), there are currently around six million refugees in the country. After the visit of Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (both ÖVP) in July last year, Nehammer will certainly also speak to al-Sisi about this.
2023-04-22 17:34:29
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