Lisbon - Angola on Wednesday launched a $5bn sovereign
wealth fund to invest in domestic and overseas assets, funnelling the African
country’s vast oil wealth into infrastructure, hotels and other high-growth
projects.
The Angolan Sovereign Fund (FSA), which will also invest in
financial securities, will be headed by President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos’
economic affairs secretary, the fund’s board said in a statement.
Jose Filomeno dos Santos, one of the president’s sons, will
also sit on the three-person board, an appointment likely to raise further
questions about transparency in Angola’s government. Dos Santos, who has led
Africa’s No.2 oil producer for 33 years, was sworn in for a new five-year term
last month.
“The transparency of the fund will be guaranteed by our
strict reporting and auditing rules and an investment policy to be announced
soon,” Filomeno dos Santos said.
He said the FSA was not intended as a stabilisation tool in
the event of an oil price shock, but was aimed at developing infrastructure,
diversifying the economy and creating wealth for future generations.
Oil revenues represent over 95% of Angola’s export income
and around 45% of GDP.
The FSA is an adaptation on a fund approved by the president
in February 2011 to earmark crude revenues to develop energy and water system
infrastructure, Filomeno dos Santos said.
It will grow from further oil revenues transferred by the government and from returns on its investment projects, he added without providing estimates for the fund’s growth.