Angola is the chosen destination this week of Deputy PM Paulo Portas, days after the disgraced former BES banking boss Ricardo Salgado allegedly travelled to Luanda in a bid for €1.2 billion worth of bailout funding for the Grupo Espírito Santo.
According to press reports, Salgado’s bid was unsuccessful but he is due to attend the Luanda business fair FILDA today (July 22) at exactly the same time Paulo Portas will be flying in for the third year running.
Portas will be travelling with a contingent of businessmen from AICEP, reports Lusa. The deputy prime minister’s office told the news agency this week that FILDA would be featuring Portugal as its principal foreign exhibitor.
According to Lusa, the volume of commercial ‘exchanges’ between Portugal and Angola last year reached €7 billion, making Angola a “strategic market”.
This year’s FILDA will involve more than 100 businesses in the agricultural food production and industrial pharmaceutical sectors, Lusa added.
