It's not hard to see why Jerry Vilakazi, CEO of Business Unity SA (Busa), is smitten with Angola. In August, he was part of a delegation of more than 150 businessmen who accompanied president Jacob Zuma to Angola - Zuma's first official external visit since assuming the highest office in SA earlier this year.
Since the visit, Busa officials and many others in the SA corporate landscape have been flying in and out of the capital, Luanda. The country, still recovering from a decades-long civil war that ended in 2002, has in a few years endeared itself to the investment community.
"There's no question that Angola is open for trade and open for investment. It's open for those who wish to hear and those who wish to understand the nature of the market and how to access it," says retired ambassador Roger Ballard-Tremeer.
Having spent four years in Luanda, where he was posted on a foreign mission in the 1990s, Ballard-Tremeer isn't only well spoken in Portuguese, he also understands Angola's business and political landscape. And today, through the SA-Angola Chamber of Commerce (SA-ACC), he offers advice to firms on matters Angolan.
"Angola's average growth rate over several years has been in double digits... with others, such as the International Monetary Fund, putting it as high as the upper 20s," says Ballard-Tremeer, who is also the honorary CEO of the SA-ACC.
He ascribes the country's growth to two aspects: the high oil price and the Chinese factor - the extremely generous credit line that Beijing made available to the country. However, with the oil price under pressure, Angola has found itself "eating humble pie" and knocking on the doors of the IMF to ameliorate US dollar liquidity problems, says Ballard-Tremeer. It's also having problems paying off foreign creditors.
But that's not to say that the country has lost its spark. After all, its diamond mines are poised for growth; the infrastructure development is adding new impetus; and the ruling MPLA's seriousness about turning Angola into an investment destination is already showing signs of success.
Despite lower than normal remittances from the oil price, Angola remains on a strong trajectory because the arrival of the Chinese has laid the foundation for growth. Beijing's investment focused on the multibillion dollar infrastructure rehabilitation programme. This didn't only take the construction and related industries to new heights, but also made Angola a little more appealing for foreign and local investors. The building of the stadiums (ahead of the CAN soccer tournament in 2010), airports, ports, roads and bridges will inject much-needed stimulus in the construction arena.
"All the national road connections and interprovincial roads are in the process of being repaired. This means that public transport now operates right across the country. Today I can get on a bus in Luanda and travel to the most remote province by road in reasonable time," says Ballard-Tremeer. In sharp contrast, he says, in Luanda road users spend hours in traffic just to move from one part of the city to another.
Nonetheless, with the continued discoveries of oil, it doesn't look like Angola will lose its place among the continent's fastest-growing economies. The first oil well was discovered in the 1950s, when Angola was still under Portuguese rule, and today this sector accounts for more than 90% of the country's economy. It's also worth noting that Angola has since become the leading oil exporter on the continent.
In 2007, SA exported R6bn worth of goods to Angola with the latter sending goods, mainly petroleum-related, worth R12bn in exchange. But with the improved relations between Luanda and Pretoria, these numbers can only go up. In fact, says Vilakazi, the August visit and a series of business meetings are slowly developing into something positive.
Last year, GDP surged an impressive 26,6%, which makes SA's elusive target of 6% growth pale in comparison. But, like SA, Angola has a high unemployment rate. In both countries, there are painfully tiny minorities of haves, with the majority living in poverty. Of course, official statistics don't always reflect such contradictions.
Pundits say Angola's growth story is nowhere near over, thanks to the vast mineral resources sector whose trickle-down effect spans such industries as property and tourism. To put it in Vilakazi's words: "There's scope for growth and opportunities in energy, telecommunications, mining, tourism, health care, construction..."
WHAT IT MEANS
 With infrastructure development the Angolan landscape is changing rapidly
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Investors from across the globe have been flocking in, while others are pulling out. But given the heated global competition, can SA investors capitalise on the Angolan goodwill? The minister of planning Ana Dias Lourenço speaks of co-operation from a regional as well as South-South perspective. Still, the Angolan government has been slow to ease work permit and visa requirements for South Africans, which makes access to that country difficult, something that Vilakazi and Ballard-Tremeer bemoan.
But even with such difficulties, SA investors continue to venture into Angola. SABMiller, for instance, is building its first wholly owned subsidiary in Cabiri, near Luanda. Until now, the beer behemoth's interest in Angola was a stake in the Coca-Cola factory near the capital and an involvement in the state-held brewery. Meanwhile, another SA group, Nampak Bevcan, is splurging US$80m to set up a factory that will supply the beer group and others with cans.
With such examples, Angola seems to be what a candy factory is to kids: it offers a special something for all types of palates and taste buds.
