Britain extends 70m-dollar credit to Angola: export agencyBritain is to extend a line of credit amounting to 70 million dollars to Angola, the government's export agency said Wednesday. The Export Credits Guarantee Department The Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) is the United Kingdom's official Export Credit Agency (ECA). It is a separate Government Department, reporting through a Minister of State to the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. (ECGD ECGD See: Export Credit Guarantee Department ), which withdrew funding from Angola during its civil war in the 1980s, said it was opening the credit line following Angola's repayment of its Paris Club Paris Club A monthly meeting in Paris attended by creditors of 19 countries to discuss debt issues. Among other things, the Paris Club addresses the issue of coordinated debt relief for developing countries that cannot service their debt. debts and the country's post-conflict reorganisation of its finances. Speaking on ECGD's behalf, British Ambassador to Angola Pat Phillips said the investments would be directed into "capital projects" across the private sector in the southern African country. Angola, which relies on oil and diamonds for 90 percent of its income, is suffering in the global slowdown and has announced cuts to public spending. There have also been repeated calls from its political and economic leaders to diversify the economy beyond the mineral sector. "This is a very positive step to help the government diversify its economy, to create jobs and increase the well-being of the population," Aguinaldo Jaime Aguinaldo Jaime is an Angolan politician and economist. He is currently the deputy Prime Minister. He previously served as Minister of Finance (1990-1993), President of the African Investment Bank (since 1996), and Provincial Governor (1999-2002). , head of Angola's ANIP ANIP Albo Nazionale Informatici Professionisti (Italian) ANIP Army-Navy Instrumentation Program ANIP Alternate National Command Center Improvement Program (National Agency for Private Investment), told reporters. British oil firm BP is currently the second biggest investor in Angola after American firm Chevron, Phillips said. But in the private sector -- and compared to China, Brazil and Portugal -- Britain has a much lower profile in the former Portuguese colony. The announcement of the British credit line comes a week after Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos visited Berlin and secured a credit agreement with Germany for access to 1.7 billion dollars. Angola is spending billions of dollars rebuilding its country after three decades of bloody conflict which destroyed the country's infrastructure and left a lasting legacy of low life expectancy Life Expectancy 1. The age until which a person is expected to live. 2. The remaining number of years an individual is expected to live, based on IRS issued life expectancy tables. and high rates of disease. The Paris Club is an informal group of the world's wealthiest countries, which provides financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. to countries in debt and their creditors. Angola paid off its arrears to the Paris Club in December 2007. 
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