WASHINGTON, December 13, 2022 – Today, World Bank Group President David Malpass met with President João Lourenço of Angola.
President Malpass congratulated President Lourenço on his recent re-election and thanked him for his important role in brokering peace in the Great Lakes region.
President Malpass and President Lourenço discussed recent macroeconomic developments in Angola and the need to strenghten economic growth, private sector development, and job creation to both reduce poverty and improve the living standards of the Angolan people. President Malpass and President Lourenço also talked about the reforms and investments needed to boost Angola’s access to electricity and water, including electricity transmissions and irrigation. President Malpass noted President Lourenço’s interest in financing for highways and other infrastructure projects, including through PPPs, and reaffirmed the World Bank Group’s (WBG) commitment to working closely with Angolan authorities toward the preparation of a new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Angola.
Noting good progress on passing key reforms, President Malpass emphasized to President Lourenço the importance of fully implementing structural reforms and emphasized that further progress is needed with regards to transparency of new external borrowing, implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Law, the PPP framework, and the government’s privatization plan.
President Malpass and President Lourenço also discussed the government plans to gradually phase out costly fuel subsidies, while protecting the poor and vulnerable. In this context, President Malpass highlighted ongoing technical assistance by the World Bank to help design and implement subsidy reforms while institutionalizing the Kwenda cash transfer program to mitigate social impacts of the reforms on poorer households. President Malpass also noted that additional fiscal savings from subsidy reforms can help address Angola’s pressing need to strengthen budget allocations for human capital development, particularly for education.
