weekly chart with notes, page-16

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-09-06-rebuilding-a-nation

The economy is growing so fast that economic data is overtaken by reality as soon as it is published. Heavily subsidised fuel prices -- a litre of petrol costs about $0,50, and diesel $0,38 -- and an exchange rate that has remained stable for the past three years have contained, but could not completely suppress, the inflation rate, which is running at about 23%.

Blessed with prodigious natural resources of oil, diamonds, and rich agricultural land, the country has the potential to become one of the richest nations in the world.

Brand-new, dual-lane highways, built by Brazilian, Chinese and South Korean contractors, snake through the country, connecting Luanda with cities in the interior, which could once only be reached by airplane or days of bone-jarring driving over rutted roads.

State-of-the-art fibre-optic telecommunications facilities are now being installed in most of the major cities. Where physical connections are not possible, smaller rural areas can now connect to the outside world via satellite-based communications systems.


Development difficulties
The non-profit Heritage House Foundation, which rates countries' economies for their freedom, gives Angola a low score of 36,5% mostly because of the restrictive national regulatory environment. Starting a business takes an average of 119 days, and obtaining a business licence takes longer than the global average of 19 procedures and 243 days, it said.

Foreign investment in sectors such as defence, public and state security, certain aspects of banking and the running of ports and airports "remains somewhat off-limits" with the government increasingly insisting that Angolan nationals be hired. With a massive professional skills shortage, obtaining work permits for their expatriate labour remains a major headache for foreign companies.

Although there are 15 commercial banks operating in the country's financial sector, financial services remain underdeveloped. Two of the largest state-owned banks, which in 2006, controlled about 45% of banking assets, are to be privatised.

The private insurance sector remains heavily regulated and the formally constituted Angolan stock exchange is still not operational.

Other structural problems remain. Although the government has broadly agreed to International Monetary Fund recommendations to refinance the central bank and national oil and diamond companies Sonangol and Endiama, progress has been slow.

A key development would be to move the regulatory powers held by these companies into independent, statutory bodies that would comply with international standards of accountability and transparency. But with political patronage a major feature of these industries, the MPLA government appears to be dragging its heels.

One of the biggest political headaches is the heavily subsidised fuel prices. Sonangol's ageing refinery, built during pre-independence days, cannot supply more than 24% of the country's growing fuel needs.

This means that Sonangol has to import the balance, procured at international prices, from wherever it can. Fuel shortages, especially in smaller towns, remain a problem.

Property rights, contract enforcement and general commercial rule of law also remain an obstacle to attracting private foreign investment. Foreign businesses' most common complaint is that it is nearly impossible to obtain land legally because of a confusing welter of pre-independence colonial laws and often arbitrary allotments of land to individuals by the politically powerful provincial governors.

A new Land Act, promulgated in 2004 by President José Eduardo dos Santos has done little to clear up the red tape, apart from making it easier for government to appropriate communally-held land, local NGOs said.

As a result, there is little faith in the Angolan judiciary's powers to enforce the law evenly. "The rule of law cannot be guaranteed by Angola's legal system, which suffers from political interference by vested interests and weak statutes," Heritage House said in its most recent report on the country.

As result, the Angolan judicial system does not handle commercial disputes efficiently and, because of high legal fees, most such disputes are settled out of court, it noted. While labour costs are relatively low, Angola's previous dreams of creating a workers' paradisehave led to employment regulations that can make it prohibitively expensive to dismiss any worker.

Not surprisingly, corruption is perceived to be pervasive, especially among high government officials and the MPLA leadership. In its most recent ranking, Transparency International placed Angola 142 out of 163 countries, a rating that has much to do with the fact that seven of the 10 richest people in Angola are top government officials.

The richest is Dos Santos himself -- people joke that he is the third-richest man in Brazil who is known to have extensive commercial holdings via his wife and other family members in Portugal.