afrol News, 5 May - While seeking new opportunities in the economic and political reconstruction era, Angola is exploring other potential wealth earning project apart from oil and diamonds.

According to reports from the local media, the government has announced that the country will have four new cement factories by 2012.

Quoting an Angolan Industry Ministry source, media reports said the project estimated at US$140 million, will be run by Secil Lobito, which already has a cement factory in Lobito producing 240,000 tonnes of cement.

The construction for the plant is expected to start this year, with the factory expected to produce at least 1 million tonnes of cement when it becomes operational in 2012, the government officials were reported to have said.

Other plants are also planned for the Benguela province, with an estimated over a million tonnes production once the factories are operational.

The Angola government has last month announced it was considering over US8.6 billion investment to boost the transformation of the industry between 2009 and 2012.

Angola's deputy-minister for industry Kiala Gabriel said the amount would be channeled to various sub-programmes like those of reconstitution of the human capital and creation of infrastructures to support the development.

According to the deputy minister, $4.1 billion would be used in the substitution of imports and foment of exports, while other funding will go for institutional capacity building and in the restructuring of industries, with funds for the implementation of the overall project coming from local and foreign sources.

The minister had also said the state budget was expected to provide $164.8 million, while bank loans will supply $1.6 billion, and the rest of the funding will be from donors as loans and grants, the minister said.

Angola emerged from an almost three-decade long civil war in 2002 as one of the world's fastest growing economies. A drop of around $100 per barrel of oil since July has prompted the Angolan government to slash its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to around 3 percent in 2009 from 11.8 percent.

Angola still remains one of the world’s poor despite being the Africa’s major oil producer.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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