Chinese researcher João Shang has described Angolan industrialization as “a historical and strategic necessity,” arguing that priority should be given to the local processing of natural resources and to the adoption of public policies adapted to Angola’s reality.
In an article entitled “Only Industrialization Can Save Angola,” João Shang, a researcher in Sino-African relations associated with the Center for Studies on the Economic and Social Development of Africa (CEDESA), stressed that the country has the resources, human capital, and potential required for an industrialization process.
“The challenge now is to turn these advantages into real productive capacity,” he said, adding that “Angola’s destiny will not be decided by what it extracts from the subsoil, but by what it is able to produce with intelligence, hard work, and a long-term vision.”
According to the academic, Angola needs an industrialization model adapted to its own reality, rather than a repetition of “outdated or environmentally unsustainable models.”
“Angola has the opportunity to follow a modern, gradual, and strategic path of industrialization, based on its comparative advantages and the demands of the 21st century. The success of industrialization requires coherent public policies, institutional stability, investment in human capital, and a strategic partnership between the State and the private sector,” he emphasized.
The academic highlighted that Angola is one of Africa’s richest countries in natural resources, such as oil, natural gas, diamonds, and metallic minerals, with vast areas of arable land and enormous hydroelectric potential.
However, “despite periods of strong economic growth, Angola continues to face deep structural challenges: excessive dependence on oil, weak productive diversification, high youth unemployment, strong dependence on imports, and vulnerability to external shocks,” he noted.
The Chinese writer and journalist observed that these challenges reveal “a fundamental problem,” namely that “the growth model based predominantly on the export of raw materials has reached its limits,” making it “increasingly evident that only industrialization can structurally and sustainably change Angola’s economic and social destiny.”
The researcher on the economies of the Member States of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) at the Chinese Center for the Study of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CCEPLP) of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) pointed out that for many years Angola benefited from the oil sector, which played a decisive role in national reconstruction and State financing.
“Oil revenues made it possible to invest in infrastructure, stabilize public finances in certain periods, and integrate Angola into global economic flows,” he said, stressing that such dependence “created deep vulnerabilities.”
The researcher emphasized that natural resource prices are set on international markets, beyond national control, leading to exchange rate pressures, fiscal deficits, inflation, and social difficulties.
“This cyclical dynamic shows that wealth based exclusively on resources is unstable and unpredictable,” he stated, adding that “an economy excessively dependent on resources tends to neglect the development of other productive sectors, weakening the country’s industrial and technological base.”
Under this scenario, “the result is a vulnerable, poorly diversified economy that is dependent on external factors,” and only industrialization can represent a qualitative shift in the economic model.
João Shang identifies as priorities the development of agro-industry, the creation of special economic zones and industrial parks, the attraction of foreign investment with technology transfer, technical and vocational training aligned with industrial needs, and regional integration.
Source: Lusa
