Angolan Head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos, has acknowledged that much rural development remains an urgent priority in Cabinda, particularly its infrastructure.

Below is an article published by Angola Press:

Angolan Head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos, on Friday [10 August 2007] in the northern Cabinda Province made an appeal on the need to be paid more attention to the rural communities, aiming at the improvement of people’s living standard.

José Eduardo dos Santos- who was speaking to a crowd of over 20,000 people, a public rally held in Tafe stadium in the ambit of his one-day visit to that province- said that “It is necessary that we pay more attention to the rural zones, our villages, the countryside, (…) with the aim to improve the living standards of the populations in those areas”.

“Let us improve the accesses, the roads of access to the communes, let us improve the access roads to villages (…). The little progress that we feel in the city, let’s take it to all the corners of this beautiful province of Cabinda”, he underlined.

The Chief Magistrate of the country emphasised that it is necessary to improve conditions in the rural zones, by taking to those areas services like drinkable water, schools, health centres, medicines, as well as improve the sanitary conditions and the food conservation techniques.

“These are tasks that we are able to do if we are well organised and united, (that we can) conduct and execute to improve the living standards, both in the cities and in the countryside”, said the Angolan Head of State.

President Eduardo dos Santos highlighted the effective peace being experienced in Cabinda, having also defended the need for more attention to be paid to social intervention programmes, in rural areas.