SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY ENG. JOSÉ
EDUARDO DOS SANTOS, ON HIS INVESTITURE AS
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ANGOLA
Luanda, 26 January 2012
 Your Excellency the Chief Justice of the
Constitutional Court,
 Esteemed judges of the Constitutional Court,
 Mr President of the National Electoral Commission,
 Illustrious guests,
 Ladies and gentlemen,
 Dear countrymen,
This is a very special moment for the Angolan people,
for the MPLA party and for me. In accordance with
the results of the general elections on 31 August and
the provisions of Article 114 of the Constitution of the
Republic, I have just been sworn in as President of
the Republic of Angola by the Chief Justice of the
Constitutional Court.
The country has already held two other democratic
multi-party elections in which a clear majority voted
for the MPLA and its leader. The fact that this formal
investiture ceremony is taking place only today means
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that this time all possible previous doubts have been
fully clarified.
From the bottom of my heart I express my thanks for
the honour and confidence the Angolan people have
conferred on me to guide the nation’s destiny, thereby
reaffirming their previous position, in a clear
demonstration of consistency and political maturity.
I also thank the members of my family and all those
who helped me during the election campaign to make
my message and that of the MPLA known to all
Angolans.
The electors vote, choose the country’s leaders and we
are here to respect their will. It has in fact been a
democratic decision of our people, who have, in this
way, shown that they support the MPLA’s Election
Manifesto and Government Program.
These two guiding documents affirm the purpose of
building a democratic, inclusive and progressive
society of wellbeing and social justice. Their
implementation by the executive I will lead will be
based on the principle of renovation and continuity,
renovating and correcting what is bad, continuing
and improving what is good, and starting new
endeavors.
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The course of our development has been defined! The
goals that we set for this new period of government
are contained in the Long-Term Development Strategy
for our country known as ‘Angola 2025’.
This document has been successfully implemented
since 2008, when a national conference representing
all Angolans approved the National Consensus
Agenda. We are proud of the results achieved so far,
which are in keeping with fulfilling the aspirations
and legitimate desires of Angolan society.
 Dear countrymen,
In the term of office now starting, the first priority of
the executive is to maintain political stability by
promoting, defending and consolidating peace.
This prospect means strengthening democracy, in
which freedom of speech and creation, equal
opportunities and social justice are interlinked with
multi-disciplinary programs and activities for the
development of national culture and of people.
It also means promoting gender equality, more
rigorous respect for the principles of good governance
and transparent management of public property.
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In order to achieve this priority, the mechanisms for
dialogue with trade unions, social and professional
organizations, churches, business people and other
social partners will be strengthened, so as to gain
their cooperation in setting out development policies
and strategies for implementing them.
Pride of place will be given to dialogue with the youth.
Our young people need efficient channels to involve
themselves in solving problems that affect all of
society,
contributing
with
their
dynamism,
enthusiasm and creativity.
The strengthening of the state and its institutions,
within this context, is the guarantee of political
stability, peace and democratic freedoms. We are
therefore going to emphasize the implementation of
the program of reforms to improve the organization,
management and control of public finance.
We will also emphasize the putting into effect of the
reform program in the sectors of defense, law and
order and security and the program to increase the
effectiveness of the justice system as a whole,
including the investigating and examining police,
substantially raising the number of courts, increasing
the number of prison establishments and centers for
re-educating and recuperating delinquents and
making pragmatic moves to seek innovative and more
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effective solutions to ensure the celerity of justice and
judicial decisions.
We want, on the one hand, to give a clear signal of
combating the deplorable feeling of impunity and, on
the other, to guarantee access to the law and the
defense of the legal interests of citizens, companies
and democratic institutions.
In fact, political stability and strengthened
institutional
capacity,
especially
in
public
administration, apart from being necessary for
consolidating the rule of law, are preconditions for
guaranteeing the macroeconomic stability we
promised the electorate.
In this connection, I recall that in the past five years
the Angolan economy showed an average growth of
about 9.2%, with an average growth rate of 12% in
the non-oil sector. These growth levels are a result of
the effective measures taken by the executive to
stabilize fiscal, monetary and foreign exchange
macroeconomic indicators, making it possible to
revive the economy.
We intend, in this new term of office, to redouble
efforts to achieve a marked improvement in
macroeconomic stability, essentially in respect of
controlling liquidity pressure, price control, foreign
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exchange management, monitoring competitiveness
indexes and controlling the budget deficit.
We are going to carry out the first general population
and housing census in 2013. It is an important
operation to enable us to know how many we are and
how we live. This process will provide rigorous and
complete knowledge about our country and make
credible information and data available for drawing
up more realistic policies.
Public policies to provide support and incentives for
growth will be adjusted and improved, so as to ensure
more effective institutional coverage for making full
use of our country’s resources by promoting foreign
and national investment, in view of the positive
figures given by international risk assessment
agencies.
More attention will also be paid to strengthening
recently created mechanisms for financing national
businesses, namely, the Guarantee Fund and the
Promotional Venture Capital Fund, and also the
Angolan Development Bank (BAD).
The capital market will also be an important means of
promoting the business sector and should, over the
next few years, become an additional source of
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financing the economy, an alternative to traditional
bank loans.
 Dear countrymen,
The aims and objectives of our Government Program
are strongly motivated by concern for social justice
and human development. Its implementation is based
on an economic growth strategy in which public and
private investment in structuring projects in the
public sector are the premise for national economic
development.
Our priorities in this area will be focused on the nonoil economy, giving a more important role to mining,
construction,
agriculture,
processing
industry,
distribution networks, trade circuits, the provision of
quality services and business competitiveness likely
to lead to lower consumer prices.
We will, in this way, be continuing the program of
transferring tax revenue from non-renewable natural
resources to sectors generating revenue based on
renewable resources. We shall therefore have a
program of structuring projects for electricity and
water, a strategic program for food security and
another for industrializing the country.
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This strategy will be geared to overcoming territorial
imbalances, making it possible to link up and
heighten the funding of valuable networks in the
northern, southern and eastern regions of the
country.
Our aim is to expand the domestic market, integrate
it and diversify the national productive base,
supporting it logistically with distribution networks
and effective and operational transport systems.
With a view to increasing competitiveness, we will
continue to give priority to the de-bureaucratization
and administrative simplification of the business
climate, seeking to capitalize domestic resources
enabling the private sector to create wealth.
We have learnt from experience that if we improve the
performance of a series of institutions, policies and
factors decisive to productivity in the country, we will
grow more rapidly and
get high returns from
investments, affecting business prosperity and tax
revenue, making it possible to grow more and
distribute better.
 Dear countrymen,
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One of the commitments in our Government Program
with the greatest social impact has to do with the
extent of access to essential goods. The production of
such goods requires the adoption of measures
providing incentives and protection for domestic
industry.
The policies on jobs, combating poverty, developing
and providing incentives for business opportunities
and activity will be implemented as means of
achieving that target. We base ourselves on the
premise that our economy is able to guarantee many
more jobs.
We therefore plan to achieve a much higher rate of
employment of the active labor force by improving the
mechanisms for creating jobs and providing access to
them.
At the same time, apart from the systematic carrying
out of programs that create jobs and family incomes,
supported by policies of developing and incentivizing
micro, small and medium-sized industries, the
executive will implement measures to ensure better
organization of the labor market and guarantee the
systematic monitoring of its rules.
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In this respect too, there is a need to adjust labor
legislation to make it more flexible for employers,
capable of providing more labor mobility, including
temporary jobs, while still guaranteeing the principle
of job stability and the fundamental rights of workers.
Within this context, far-reaching discussion on this
subject with social partners will be promoted,
together with a more effective program for vocational
and technical training for workers and young people
seeking their first job.
 Dear countrymen,
In the past ten years, Angola has achieved a leading
place in sub-Saharan Africa in respect of higher,
secondary and primary education.
There are today 17 universities and 44 higher
education institutions in Angola. In the past three
years alone, investments amounting to the equivalent
of more than $480 million have been made in 53 new
institutions for secondary and vocational education.
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This whole effort is aimed at making better use of
Angolans, making them ever more capable, through
schooling and vocational and academic education, of
achieving a higher degree of wellbeing and
occupational attainment, in order to be able to make
a greater contribution to economic and social
development.
We started by investing in quantity and now more
investment is needed to improve the quality of the
education provided in our schools and universities.
It is said that the greatness of a nation cannot be
measured only by the potential of its natural
resources, but also by the good character, attitude
and abilities of its citizens, who are in fact the basis
for the development of those resources.
In facing the challenges of developing out country
within the context of globalization, we need to have
highly qualified national personnel and technically
well trained workers capable of adapting rapidly to a
climate of change and the requirements of new
systems of production.
In this way, the executive will develop a program of
reviewing the education system, centered on the
effectiveness of education, covering the curricular
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model, the professional abilities of teachers,
instructors and educators, and the running of state
schools.
This review of the education system will be aimed at
reorienting courses to serve the development needs of
the country and its provinces and regions. We want
to ensure compulsory and free pre-school and
primary educating for all and raise the rate of basic
education to about 100%.
The effort to make full use of Angolans also and
essentially implies constant improvement of their
living conditions by ensuring better access to health,
basic sanitation, clean water and decent housing.
Despite the heavy investment made in this respect,
we still have a long way to go before each citizen feels
that he or she has attained the level required for
living with dignity. We must not get discouraged, but
will face the future, which depends fundamentally on
our commitment and attitude to work, with optimism
and hope in the future.
We will continue our advance to the goals set out. At
the very start of this term of office we will adopt a
national sanitary plan for the period 2012-2025. The
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program to combat hunger and poverty will not end.
It will, on the contrary, be strengthened!
The great challenge to be met is to make every citizen
an active driving force in the production and
consumer market, with direct effects on his or her
quality of life and wellbeing.
Support for former combatants, ex-servicemen and
war veterans will have a special place in the social
agenda of the next term of office. In addition to the
incentives aimed at increasing the diversification of
their incomes, occupational qualification will be
promoted to enable them to become part of the
productive process in the country.
Children, old people and the physically handicapped
have always been central to government policies. In
this term of office, the executive will increase social
assistance and support for these citizens, with
practical measures for caring for children of preschool age, reintegration in society and vocational
training for physically handicapped people and the
extension to all the provinces of homes and social
care for needy old people.
 Illustrious guests,
 Ladies and gentlemen,
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Angola is today one of the most respected countries
as regards African diplomacy. This is a merit won in
the course of our history, in which Angolans fought
consistently for national independence and were able
to defend their sovereignty against external threats
and the hegemonic tendencies of certain countries.
Our activities will continue to be guided by a
diplomatic and economic policy based on mutual
respect and reciprocal advantages, good neighborly
relations with our territorially closest partners and
the strengthening of regional economic integration
through
the
Southern
African
Development
Community (SADC), the Community of Portuguese
Language Countries (CPLP) and the Economic
Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
Angola will continue to respect all its international
commitments and abide by all the norms of the
international treaties to which it is a party or that it
has adhered to. We are committed on issues of the
defense and protection of the environment and we are
going to fight in all forums for the observance and
implementation of measures and instruments
approved by the international community to
guarantee the survival of the planet and the
protection of future generations.
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The Angolan state has always conducted its relations
with its international cooperation partners on the
basis of consistent commitment to the interests of
Angola and Angolans. Wherever citizens may live, the
defense of their interests and rights is a state
obligation that we will never renounce.
The executive will now continue this line of conduct
in its foreign policy. Our purpose will continue to be
promoting Angola and Africa to a position of sovereign
equality in international institutions and relations.
 Illustrious guests,
 Ladies and gentlemen,
 Dear countrymen,
In conclusion, I repeat that the spirit that guides me
in leading the executive is that of renewal and
continuity, which means:
 Maintaining peace and strengthening democracy;
 Proceeding dynamically to rebuild and develop
infrastructure;
 Dedicating more resources to improving the
social
conditions
of
people
and
families,
especially those who have little or almost nothing
to survive on;
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 Making better use of national personnel and the
natural resources the country, so as to increase
national wealth and make Angola grow more and
distribute better;
 Cooperating with all countries and fighting for a
more just and peaceful world;
 Relying on the strength and patriotic awareness
of the Angolan youth as an ally of the executive
in carrying out these tasks to make Angola a
good place to live in;
 Serving the nation loyally.
Permit me, therefore, Mr. Chief of Justice of the
Constitutional Court, to end my speech with the
reiterated commitment to respect the oath I have just
sworn, to comply with and ensure compliance with
the constitution and the law, to defend state
institutions and to devote myself with all my efforts
and abilities to the high functions with which I have
been invested, fulfilling them with responsibility and
as president of all Angolans without exception.
Thank you very much!
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