An oil pipeline will link Angola and Zambia as part of the strengthening of bilateral cooperation, the Zambian ambassador, Lawrence Chalungumana, said last week in Luanda at the end of his mission in the country.
Speaking to the press after saying goodbye to Angolan president, João Lourenço, the Zambian diplomat said the technical work has already been carried out to this end and that the construction work could begin in the second quarter of this year.
Lawrence Chalungumana explained that with the construction of the pipeline, Zambia will become a secondary supplier of oil products to other countries in the region.
The Zambian diplomat said the supply of around 200,000 barrels of fuel per day to Zambia from the Lobito refinery is also guaranteed and that along with the Lobito railway, the project to build roads linking Zambia to eastern Angola through Moxico province is well advanced.
According to Lawrence Chalungumana, his country will soon benefit from electricity produced in Angola, while the construction of interconnection infrastructures is underway.
Ambassador Lawrence also said that within the framework of the agreements between the two states, Zambian doctors and nursing professionals would be assisting Angolan populations in the shared border area.
As for his seven-year mission in Angola, the diplomat mentioned, among the gains, the “visibly high” level of bilateral understanding and the setting up of the joint commission to boost cooperation between the two countries.
The diplomat also listed, in the balance of his diplomatic performance, the exemption from entry visas to facilitate the movement of citizens from both countries, essentially business people, along with other business facilitation mechanisms.
Lawrence Chalungumana said that in terms of trade, Zambia has exported agricultural and agro-industrial products worth 300,000 US dollars to Angola, while the Angolan economy supplied Zambia with oil, fish, salt and granite, in a figure the diplomat did not provide.
Angola and Zambia share a common border of 1,110 kilometers and have fairly regular cooperation relations established by the General Agreement on Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation signed in 1979.
Last year the two nations strengthened bilateral cooperation with the signing of six legal instruments as part of the state visit to Angola by Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema.