US $10 million for small business development

The UN Development Programme (UNDP), the oil giant ChevronTexaco Corporation, and the Angolan government have signed an agreement to form a public-private partnership to support small business development in Angola. The memorandum of understanding signed by the three partners on Monday undertook to establish an Angola Enterprise Fund. The fund would aim at attracting private and public donors, and provide funding for programmes focusing on vocational training, small business incubation, access to credit and job creation for micro and small businesses throughout the country, a UNDP statement said. Initial contributions to the fund have included US $5 million from ChevronTexaco, US $1 million from UNDP and US $4 million from other private philanthropic sources. "Through this partnership with the Angolan government and ChevronTexaco, we hope to create closer linkages between international oil companies and local businesses, stimulating the local economy and creating the basis for more business opportunities. This will also help Angola get closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015," said Sirkka Korpela, the director of UNDP's Business Partnerships Division. ChevronTexaco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David J. O’Reilly said: "We hope that through this partnership and others that we are able to develop in the coming months we can play a constructive role to spur economic development, promote security, and to assist in securing better lives for the people of Angola." Altogether, ChevronTexaco said it would commit a total of US $25 million of its own funds, to be matched by a similar amount provided by the other partners, to support these and other partnerships over a five-year period. It anticipated that detailed agreements for the execution of the partnerships would shortly be finalised and implementation of programmes would start next year. Some additional partnerships are under discussion to provide expanded support for education and vocational training projects in Angola, UNDP said. Meanwhile, the Angolan government said on Monday that it would spend US $41 million to rebuild the central highlands city of Kuito, devastated during Angola's "war of the cities". The reconstruction of the Bie province capital, which was under siege by UNITA rebels during 1993 and 1994, would take three years, state-run Radio Nacional reported.