What makes Angola and DRC attractive prospects to Siemens Southern Africa?
Angola is currently the largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa, largely due to its oil industry. Oil is a major driver of infrastructure and as we are an infrastructure company, we look for markets with large infrastructure requirements. Angola is therefore a natural market for us. DRC too needs to develop its infrastructure. Both countries are in the process of post conflict stability programmes although there is still a great deal of hard work to be done in this regard, significant achievements have already been made. The peace processes that you speak of are still in early days how do you evaluate risk in such markets? One needs to distinguish between perceived risk and actual risk; I believe perceived risk is high, while actual risk is negligible. The secret to doing business in countries that are perceived to be risky is to do your homework so that you can better understand the risks. We have been operating in both Angola and the DRC for a very long time wi
