China's new ambassador to Angola, Zhang Bin, defends the need for the Angolan government to agree with Chinese companies on a maintenance plan for the infrastructure built by these companies during the period of cooperation between the two countries.

At a press conference on March 22, the diplomat said: "China has built a lot of infrastructure in Angola and all this infrastructure needs maintenance. Our solution is to encourage our companies to cooperate and talk to the government about maintaining this infrastructure, following the principles of the international market."

Zhang Bin also defended the need to train young Angolan staff who can dedicate themselves to maintaining these infrastructures. "This is one of the tasks of my mandate: to promote professional training here in Angola, and this could be a solution to the maintenance issue," he said, adding that he has already been talking to heads of technical institutes in China who are interested in opening technical training centers in Angola.

(Source: Valor Econónico, on March 27)