LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola will start paying part of the $6.8 billion it owes to foreign building firms operating in the oil-producing African nation later this year, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said on Monday.
Dos Santos said Angola would pay debts to medium and small building firms in full in about two months, and 40 percent of arrears to big building firms later this year.
"The rest of the payment will be made in one or two years," he told journalists.
The total debts, incurred from reconstruction after a civil war that ended in 2002, are way higher than previous estimates of between $2 billion and $4 billion. But analysts said Angola would have no problem settling the arrears.
"Higher oil prices and exports will help Angola pay the building firms although the amount now is much higher than our estimates," said Alves da Rocha, an economics professor at Luanda's Catholic University.
Around 30 percent of the arrears were owed to Portuguese construction firms, dos Santos said. Brazilian companies are also owed large sums.
Portuguese firms operating in Angola include Mota Engil, Soares da Costa and Teixeira Duarte.
Brazil's Odebrecht, the biggest builder in Angola, has halved its 27,000-strong workforce in the nation, according to the country's largest union CGSILA. Camargo Correia, another Brazilian firm, is said to have left Angola.
Reuters Africa
