ANGOLA, December 19 - The number of mobile phone users in Angola rose from 13,000 in 2003 to 13 million in 2018 and internet subscribers from 2,700 to 5 million in the same period. ,

The statistics were released on Tuesday in Vienna, Austria, by Angola’s Vice President of the Republic, Bornito de Sousa.

 

Bornito de Sousa was speaking at the opening of the Africa-Europe High Level Forum, under the motto "Leading Cooperation for the Digital Age ".

 

He explained that the digital economy in the country is a space open to entrepreneurship and startups, internet banking, electronic payments, distance education, local and municipal centers of entrepreneurship and related businesses, in an effort of expansion and digital inclusion.

 

The Vice President highlighted the Angola Cables project which, according to him, is connecting the country to the world through submarine cables, namely to Europe, Asia.

 

Also the project will soon enable connection through SACS and MONET submarine cables, linking Africa to Brazil and the United States.  

 

Add to this is the extension of 25,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables linking the 18 provinces of Angola.  

Bornito de Sousa pointed out that e-governance is interlinking the justice, finance, administration and territorial planning services, social security, education, health, vocational training and citizen registration.  

 

 

In the case of Africa, with over one billion inhabitants, Bornito de Sousa defends  effort focused on territorial extensions

In his speech, Bornito de Sousa stated that the local manufacture of raw materials and other goods is a mechanism that should be stimulated by creating jobs in the producing countries and providing a distribution of the wealth provided by national income.

 

"It is our responsibility to create the conditions so that both Africa and Europe become continents characterised by peace, good governance, political and social stability, sustainable development and decent living conditions for their citizens and inhabitants," he concluded.

Still, on Tuesday the Vice-President met with the Prime Ministers Poland and Finland, respectively Mateusz Morawiecki and Juha Sipilâ, with whom he reviewed bilateral cooperation.

On the sidelines of the forum, the Secretary of State for Telecommunications, Mário de Oliveira, said that the Angolan executive is working on creation of new conditions to boost growth in the field of digitalization.

He informed that the legislation was being adapted, the revision of the White Paper, the national broadband project, which will make public administration closer to the citizens and make these services grow in the country.

He noted that Angolan operators are working with operators in the southern region to interconnect fiber optic networks, submarine cables and the national space program.

The Africa-Europe High Level Forum is organised by the Government of Austria, which holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The event is part of recommendations of the Fifth Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union and the European Union held in November 2017 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

 

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