Agency to ease procedures for starting new companies

Although the Chinese government and numerous large companies have been investing in Angola over the last few years, the idea of investing in a foreign country can sometimes still be daunting for some businesses.

Take into consideration that while Angola has posted impressive growth in recent years, in the not-too-distant past the country was ravaged by civil and political turmoil and also suffered, like many neighboring countries, from a reputation for corruption.

Considering that as recently as 2007 it could take as long as 30 days to legally create a company in Angola, then it is no surprise that Angolans and foreign investors alike are grateful that GUE arrived on the scene to forever change the previously difficult landscape of starting a business and transforming into a simple, guided process.

As the government set up GUE back in 2003, under the direction of the Ministry of Justice, as a one-stop shop to solve the slow process that new business owners faced, then it must have had a slow start.

Even by 2005 it only succeeded in issuing 320 new business licenses, although more than double the number of the previous year.

However, six years later the number is very different. Since its inception GUE has now constituted over 10,000 new businesses - with 30 percent of being foreign, meaning that speed and efficiency have been its priority in the last few years.

If all the paperwork needed by the business owner is in order it now takes as little as three hours and this is down to two reasons and one determined lady and her hard working staff.

Isabel Tormenta is GUE's director-general. She was invited by the government to take charge of the institution and has since made it her own baby. In fact she claims to love it just as much as her children and her attention to detail in making the institution work shows that she probably does.

She knew from the start that this was the important project she was looking for.

"They told me from the start that this would be a strategic project," said Tormenta, adding that, "I embraced the project because I understood the importance it had for the country and it was important for the government to show that it could work."

"I have worked so intensely for GUE that people say it must be like loving a child. It is true," she continued.

Apart from hard work and parental love, what has been the secret of her success?

Tormenta has gone to great lengths to ensure that GUE remains 100 percent immune to corruption. With strong backing from the Ministry of Justice she has made it her daily challenge to ensure that customer satisfaction comes first.

Furthermore, and perhaps unusually for a government-owned institution, she brought in performance related pay. Her employees receive detailed and proper training and they are expected to perform in the same responsible manner and their rewards are based on GUE's performance.

Tormenta stressed that the employees have all pulled together and it is their collective efforts that have contributed to the success.

Importantly GUE went on to be exactly what Angola needed it to be: an economic stimulus.

It is hardly surprising that Angolans would have been put off by the fact they had to jump through so many hoops and wait maybe a month to set up a company. But now with GUE practically holding your hand and with the shortest of waits that can pass by as quickly as a lunch, people are more encouraged to start a business.

"Today people know that there is an institution that is going to make your life easy when you set up a company and that is acting like a stimulus," said Tormenta.

A recently new innovation for the country is that GUE is now opening up outside of Luanda in the country's provinces. Now entrepreneurs from all over the country can travel locally instead of going to the capital to open a business and this is expected to be yet another stimulus for new companies opening up across Angola.

Many Chinese who have already invested in Angola already know that Angolans love commerce. Even during the war entrepreneurship kept the country going, and now, with the diversification of the economy in full sprint, GUE helps government policy by speeding up the process for people opening companies in all sectors of the economy.

So how can GUE help foreign investors?

First, foreign investors interested in starting a business in Angola must first apply for a license to import foreign capital at the National Agency for Private Investment an unrelated agency.

However, once that is in order GUE is there to help every step of the way and its one-stop-shop efficiency works just as well for foreign investors as it does for Angolan entrepreneurs.

Tormenta talked of her admiration for the Chinese work ethic and their discipline and hopes that some of that will rub off on Angolans. "I see a future partnership between Angola and China and a positive future," Tormenta explained.

If there was one niggle, however, it would be that just as Angolans are encouraged to diversify their investments into different economic sectors to help the economy diversify, then Chinese investment should be encouraged to do the same.

China Daily

(China Daily 02/29/2012 page29)