ZAMBIA, ANGOLA MEET TO EXPLORE FURTHER TRADE PROSPECTS

ZAMBIA and Angola have held a meeting to further explore possibilities on how to operationalise the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) signed by the two countries in 2016. Angola on Monday announced completion of the domestication process, a development signalling readiness of both countries to commence trading on new preferential terms.

Zambia was first to domesticate the Agreement.

The news came to light recently when Commerce, Trade and Industry Permanent Secretary for Trade and Commerce, Lillian Bwalya, paid a courtesy call on Augusta de Carvalho Gando Frederico Forte, Secretary of State for Commerce of Angola.

Ms Bwalya expressed contentment that the two countries had overcome the legal related bottlenecks.

She noted that the time was opportune for the two parties to start intensifying efforts aimed at creating mutually beneficial commercial and investment partnerships.

The Permanent Secretary

encouraged the business community to begin focusing their efforts towards exploiting the two markets.

Ms Bwalya also talked about the need of expediting the implementation of the BTA which would start with exports of selected list products out of the agreed common list of products.

“I am happy to note that a team of experts from both countries will soon be meeting to finalise and define our inaugural list of selected products to benefit from the new trading regime with Angola.

“Angola is among Zambia’s closest neighbours. The ties that bind the two countries are broad and deep as a result of history, proximity and shared interests. In the recent years, Bilateral cooperation between Zambia and Angola has been elevated,” she said.

The two countries have 25 Memoranda of Understandings across many sectors, among them petroleum sector, infrastructure development, transport sector, agriculture, space sciences and technology, health, defence and security.