angola., page-96

Im over on the SBM thread and the stench from CVI is quite disturbing. Time to improve the quality of content.
Commercial Information on Angola
We hope that you will enjoy your stay in Angola. Your time here will be challenging and rewarding. This booklet contains a few facts, suggestions and advice, which we hope will help you to settle in and understand the city and its people. Please be advised that the Embassy neither endorses nor claims as exhaustive the sources mentioned in this packet.

Other sources of information for Americans planning to visit Luanda:

Embassy "welcome packet" for Americans moving to Angola, including restaurant and hotel information
General information for American citizens in Angola, including lists of doctors and attorneys in Luanda
A private site about life in Angola, http://www.gindungo-online.freehomepage.com.
Angola
2007 Investment Climate Statement – Angola
Openness to Investment
Angola welcomes investment and created the National Private Investment Agency (ANIP) to assist investors and facilitate new investment. In 2003, the government of Angola replaced the 1994 Foreign Investment Law with the Basic Law for Private Investment (Law 11/03). Law 11/03 lays out the general parameters, benefits, and obligations for foreign investment in Angola, and recognizes that investment plays a vital role in the country's economic development. It encourages domestic and foreign investment by providing equal treatment, offering fiscal and custom incentives, simplifying the investment application process and lowering the required investment capital. The 2003 investment law is part of an overall effort by the GRA to create a more investor-friendly environment. Other legislative measures include the new Company Law that came into effect in April 2004 (No.1/04, of February 13) and a Voluntary Arbitration Law (No.16/03, of July 25) that has been approved but not yet implemented. The Company Law consolidates the rules applying to the incorporation of commercial companies in Angola, which were formerly spread amongst several laws, and the Voluntary Arbitration Law will provide the legal framework for non-judicial resolution of disputes. These investment-friendly laws, however, are subordinate to decrees and regulations issued by other government ministries who theoretically could restrict or negate investment protections in the 2003 Investment Law. Investments in the energy, diamond, telecommunication and financial sectors continue to be governed by legislation specific to each sector.

Foreign investments of $100,000 to $5 million require ANIP approval. The Council of Ministers must approve investments over $5 million, as well as any investment that requires a concession (such as oil or mining) or includes the participation of a parastatal. After obtaining contract approval from ANIP or the Council of Ministers, the investor must register the company, publish company statutes in the official gazette (Diário da República), obtain a business license, and register with the fiscal authorities. Foreign investments under $100,000 do not require ANIP approval, but still must be registered, published, and licensed as described above.

Obtaining the proper permits and business licenses to operate in Angola can be time-consuming. The World Bank Doing Business in 2006 report identified Angola as 170th of 175 countries surveyed to establish a business, requiring 124 days to register a business compared with a regional average of 62 days. In August 2003, the government established the “Guichet Único,” or one-stop shop, to simplify the process and reduce the registration time by placing representatives of various government ministries in one place. However, the Ministry of Justice’s Guichet Único lacks authority over the other government ministries which must approve licenses, permits, and other requirements, and thus has encountered great difficulty in expediting company registration. Nonetheless, the Guichet Único issued 320 new business licenses in 2005, more than double the 151 issued in 2004. The Ministry of Justice is in the process of reorganizing the Guichet Único to increase its efficiency with the assistance of advisors from the Portuguese Ministry of Justice.

There is no formal discrimination against foreign investment, but Angolan or other companies familiar with the bureaucratic and legal complexities of the business environment often hold an advantage. The Promotion of Angolan Private Entrepreneurs Law adopted in July 2003 gives Angolan-owned companies preferential treatment in tendering for goods, services and public works contracts.

In December 2005, the government appointed a commission to oversee the creation of a stock exchange, the “Bolsa de Valores.” The commission is reportedly still at work and announced in December 2006 that it hoped the stock exchange would start operations by mid-2007. When it starts operating, the exchange should provide equal access to foreign and domestic investors.

Conversion and Transfer Policies
Economic and financial reform measures in recent years have improved local access to foreign exchange and facilitated remittance and transfer of funds, but Central Bank Order 4/2003 imposes firm controls over the transfer of funds abroad. While Investment Law 11/03 guarantees the repatriation of profits for officially approved foreign investment, and investors can remit funds through local commercial banks, under Order 4/2003 the Central Bank must authorize the repatriation of profits and dividends exceeding $100,000. In addition, the Central Bank can temporarily suspend repatriation of dividends or impose repatriation in installments if immediate repatriation will have an adverse effect on the country's balance of payments. Companies have complained in the past about waiting several months to remit funds abroad, but since 2004, the Central Bank has loosened controls and bank service time now has been reduced to a matter of hours.

Expropriation and Compensation
The government of Angola is highly unlikely to expropriate the assets of foreign investors. However, prior to 1992, the government used the failure to fulfill contractual or other obligations as justification for expelling foreign investors and expropriating their facilities. Changes in legislation and enforcement of existing laws, which occurred during the last five years, pose some risk of reducing company profits. This is especially true in the petroleum sector, which has been subjected to local content regulations and three new petroleum laws promulgated in 2004. The legislative process is convoluted and subject to high-level dictacts. Additionally, vague provisions in some laws permit various interpretations.

Dispute Settlement
Angola's legal and judicial system suffers from a lack of capacity and is not efficient in handling commercial disputes. Legal fees are high, and most businesses avoid taking disputes to court. The World Bank’s Doing Business in 2006 survey estimates that commercial contract enforcement, measured by the amount of time elapsed between filing of a complaint and receipt of restitution, takes 1011 days in Angola, almost double the regional average. In July 2003, the National Assembly approved the Voluntary Arbitration Law (VAL) to provide a general legal framework for faster, non-judicial arbitration of disputes, except for cases expressly excluded by the law. The VAL has been published in the official gazette, the Diario da Republica, and is now in effect. The US Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program has improved criminal case management in Angola’s Luanda Province by instituting random selection of judges to hear cases and a computerized case tracking system. Angola is not a signatory to the United Nations’ New York Convention, the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), or the United Nations’ Convention on for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). Angola is a member of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which provides dispute settlement assistance. Past MIGA efforts to resolve foreign investment disputes have proven successful, although no cases involving U.S. companies were referred to MIGA in 2006.

Performance Requirements and Incentives
Angola's investment law provides for equal access to incentives for both foreign and domestic investors. Investors benefit from a more standardized set of incentives based on Law 17/03 of July 25, 2003, which apply to high priority sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, energy, water housing and fisheries. The incentives may include exemption from industrial and capital gains taxes for up to 15 years and from customs duties for up to 6 years. Many foreign companies already operating in Angola enjoy some form of tax or duty waiver. Companies should apply for such incentives when submitting their investment application to ANIP. ANIP and other government ministries are willing to accommodate large foreign investments and to advise on the range of incentives that could be available for investments in particular sectors or regions of the country.

Angola imposes or enforces few specific performance requirements on foreign investments. The government encourages "Angolanization" of companies operating in the country and greater use of Angolan suppliers of goods and services. Decrees 5/95 and 6/01 limit expatriate staffing of local companies established in Angola by national or foreign investors to 30 percent of the workforce, and require Angolan and expatriate staff with the same jobs and responsibilities to receive the same salaries. International oil companies are working with the government on a new local content initiative that will establish more explicit sourcing requirements for the petroleum sector. The Petroleum Ministry expects to enforce this in the near future. Oil service companies may meet these requirements by partnering with local Angolan firms, hiring more Angolan employees, or substituting locally-produced products or services for imports. Foreign investors can set up fully-owned subsidiaries in many sectors, and frequently are encouraged, but not required, to take on local partners.