Angola

National Encounter of Women Entrepreneurs

Soyo, 5 April 2009 - The Minister for Family and Promotion of Woman, Genoveva Lino, appealed to Angolan women entrepreneurs to invest more in the agro-cattle, agro-industry and fishing sectors, so as to lessen the effects of the financial crisis in the national economy.

The Government official was speaking at the firth National Encounter of Angolan Women Entrepreneurs, held from March 30-31 in the Soyo capital city of Zaire Province.

The adoption of methods and mechanisms to enable permanent dialogue between the business class and the government, aimed at removing the barriers that hinder the micro and small scale activity were also part of the recommendations.

The meeting was prepared by the Federation of Angolan Women Entrepreneurs (FMEA) and sponsored by the Angola Enterprise Program (AEP) - a partnership of UNDP, Chevron Texaco, Spanish Cooperation and Government of Angola (GoA).

It should be recalled that AEP benefited from the Chevron Texaco's high patronage with about two hundred and twenty-five millions of kwanzas (US$ 3 million) for its implementation, besides the additional seventy and five millions of kwanzas (US$ 1 million) invested by UNDP.

The Spanish Cooperation initiated to attend the program this year, with a 2-million Euros grant (approximately US$ 2.5 million), for the 2009-2011 period.

The next encounter was scheduled for 2010, in the province of Bié.