COMRADE JOÃO MANUEL GONÇALVES LOURENÇO OPENING MPLA CONGRESS

Opening speech of the vii extraordinary congress of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola- MPLA, delivered by comrade João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, President of the MPLA

– dear comrades of the presidium

– comrades delegates to the vii extraordinary congress of the

– militant comrades, friends and party supporters

– dear guests

– Angolan people

The MPLA, the largest national political force winner of the August 2017 general election with a qualified majority in Parliament, performs today its vii extraordinary congress in an environment of peace and National Concord, but it has great challenges to face and overcome.

We would like to have the presence of comrade José Eduardo Dos Santos, who over 39 years led the MPLA in good and bad times and today is the president emeritus of our party.

Much has been said and speculated about the real need for this congress, the main objective of which is to extend the composition of the central committee, in order to make it more consistent with the current economic situation of our society, to combat corruption And to impunity, of greater democratic openness, with real gains with regard to freedom of the press, thought, expression and manifestation.

This process can only be successful if the direction of the party is reinforced with comrades really committed to the cause of the ongoing political and economic reforms, which aim to create a true democratic state of law based on the rule of law, a fairer society that gives Angolan and Angolan, equal opportunities for insertion in society and success in the realisation and realisation of their dreams.

We won the general elections having as the main motto, the need to “improve what is well, correct what is wrong”. very noble words, beautiful on paper but to some extent difficult, but not impossible to make them reality.

When it comes to “correcting what’s wrong”, one thing is to say, it’s the manifestation of an intention, another thing is to have the moral versatility, the courage to do it really without giving up to pressure, blackmail or even threats

Voters voted massively in the MPLA, because they believed that we are really able to start building a different society, where those who have the responsibility to make respect the constitution and the law, are the first to fulfil it so that with its example educate all Society in the need of respect for the public good, the need for everyone to provide accounts in the way they manage the public purse that is the property of all

It is of leaders with this profile, who do not expect to find perks, facilities and privileges, which are aware that being a member of the central committee requires more work, more responsibility, better social conduct, which the party needs to discover and

By we today the 134 comrades, from the lists of precedence of the ordinary Congress, JMPLA, OMA, the extraordinary provincial conferences and the central direction of the party, the MPLA did its best in order to achieve or at least approach us To the fullest of the objective set when we decided to perform the extraordinary congress with

We are aware that we have reached 42 % for gender and 61 % for young people aged 45

We also welcome the fact that 125 of the 134 candidates have superior training, which is above our own expectations.

Dear comrades

It was in compliance with the guidelines and guidelines of the party, that the executive from very early was concerned to take measures to combat corruption, to combat monopolies and to the concentration of wealth in the hands of few, measures in favour of sound competition between companies Facilitation of the tourist visa and the creation of the foreign investor special visa.
We open the country to the world and as a result of this, today we have easier access to the issuance of euro bonds, financing of the international monetary fund and the world bank in advantageous conditions, and that at the same time they pass the image of credibility , from our financial institutions, from our central bank, finally from our country.

As a result, the country begins to have another perspective on what private investment concerns. The International conferences on tourism and oil and gas recently held in the country, are well the indicator of the interest that the Angolan economy has been awakening with International Investors.

With the end of the armed conflict that destroyed much of the main infrastructure, the country had the need to debt a lot to make public investment on roads and bridges, ports, airports, Railways, hydro and power power plants and their transmission lines , water catchment and water treatment, and others necessary for economic and social development.

There was a great effort of National Reconstruction, which forced the country to use external debt today in the 63 % of the public debt which in turn represents 84 % of the national gross domestic product.

The public debt and particularly the external debt, reached these levels so high compared to what actually invested in infrastructure, because it also served to finance the illicit enrichment of a very well-selected restricted elite on the basis of the kinship, the cronyism and the Crony, which constituted business conglomerates with these public money.
With this situation of injustice that we need to correct, for every dollar we spend to perform the debt service, the state is also paying the “said private” investment in the banking, mobile telephony, media, diamonds, jewellery, in the Large commercial surfaces, in the construction materials industry and others, which a few have made with public money.

It is not acceptable and we cannot conform, with the fact that it has come to the point of placing public companies highlighted for sonangol, to also finance some of these private businesses, as if of credit institutions.

If we can reverse this situation, battle still does not win, then with these and other resources we will fight poverty better, remove more and more citizens from the poverty threshold and build a true middle class with an acceptable standard of living

Dear comrades

To make public investments in infrastructure and to meet the social sector such as education, health, social housing, culture, sport and others, the state mainly counts with a privileged source of revenue “taxes”, paid General rule by companies and citizens, aka tax taxpayers.

Not to penalise much the taxpayer, over the years have been tried and applied a set of different taxes, but it was always concern for governments, to find and apply a tax that is the fairest both for the taxpayer and for the state he raises for Use it for the public good, in the interest of the taxpayer himself.

Today in the world, it is almost unanimous opinion that the fairest of all taxes is the tax on value added or simply VAT, adopted by almost all the countries of market economy and that Angola prepares to introduce soon, so soon The minimum of conditions to do so.

Like everything in life, the unknown always inspires two possible feelings, curiosity or fear.
The incidence will be only 14 %, and there will be no accumulation of vat with the consumption tax that today is 30 %.

The possible rise in prices blame VAT, has no reason and foundation to happen, because if it happens it will be only by mere speculation of speculators of bad faith, with regard to which consumer protection institutions should stay tuned.

Because it is a novelty in our economy, the introduction of vat will be a process to implement gradually and phased, if we consider that your success depends on much of the capacity that companies will have from now on in the organisation of their accounting.

A window of opportunity opens to the educational establishments, and the profession of accountant becomes more valued in our society.

If on the one hand there is no doubt as to the relevance of the application of this tax, on the other it must the economic team of the executive, evaluate the best time for your start preferably this year, taking into account a

Dear fellow delegates

Dear guests

We perform this extraordinary congress under the motto “MPLA and the new challenges”.

The biggest challenge is without a doubt that the increase in internal production, the diversification of our economy, making it less and less dependent on the revenue of the export of crude.

We work for the significant increase in national production of goods and services in order to achieve self-sufficiency in first-need consumption goods, reducing import and increasing export, and with that the currency storage.

For the success of this ambitious and challenging programme, which we call prodesi, the production support programme, the diversification of exports and the replacement of imports, we rely mainly on national private entrepreneurship and foreign private investors, to develop projects in practically all Branches of our economy highlighted for agro-livestock, Fisheries, Tourism, transport, the different extraction and processing industries, renewable energy and others.

With this we will be not only ensuring the increase in the offer of goods of internal consumption, but also those of export such as cereals, meat, fish and seafood, fruit, ornamental rocks, Diamond, gold and other materials , but also to ensure lasting employment for Angolans, for young people in particular.

We will continue to work permanently with Angolan Business Associations, together to find the best policies that the executive should take, which contribute to the strengthening and growth of National Entrepreneurship And ensure the promotion of internal production and employment.

Dear comrades

The armed conflict that has struck over the country over a few decades, although it has definitely ended 17 years ago, is the main cause of the massive rural Exodus of populations to major urban centres above the coast but not only.

It is true that the excessive concentration of central power, in the making of administrative decisions even of the most elementary ones from the capital Luanda, also contributed negatively to the abandonment to which the interior of our country is today to some extent voted.

It is therefore a great challenge for the nation, in addition to the implementation of local power when there are legislation that support, the rescue of the life of municipalities, in order to stop the growing exodus of the populations, through the creation of better social conditions Of employment, health, education, mobility, water and energy among other attractions.

With This purpose, the executive will launch this month, the piim integrated intervention programme in the municipalities, whose most detailed contours will be known in due time.

Dear comrades

This Congress, though extraordinary, will pass to history as the one who best fulfilled with the responsibility to guarantee at least 40 % of the gender in the management organs of the party having even overtaken, the one who most rejuvenated his direction, the one Schooling elected to the central committee more members with higher training.

This same Congress, is still what has defined the imperative need to promote internal production and exports, the promotion of employment, the rescue of the life of the municipalities and the ambition to conquer the overwhelming majority of municipal chambers in the framework of the municipal elections, The “new challenges of the MPLA” of this half term of mandate that we have left until the general

It is a case to say that this extraordinary congress is a good basis for the guarantee of the success of the next ordinary Congress of 2021.

With these words, I declare open the vii extraordinary congress of the MPLA

Thanks for the attention!