Huambo - The ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Angola, Tsjeard Hoekstra, on Wednesday expressed the intention of his country to provide financial support to entrepreneurship higher education course at José Eduardo dos Santos University (UJES) in the province of Huambo.
The diplomat expressed this desire at the end of an observation visit to the remote detection laboratory of the Geographic Information System (GIS) financed, since 2019, by the Government of this European country, at the Faculty of Agricultural Science (FCA) located at UJES.
The ambassador detailed that the process of inserting the higher education course in Entrepreneurship is a program that started in 2023, in a close partnership with the universities Wageningen and Amsterdam (Netherlands) and UJES (Angola) to promote self-employment and efficient social economic development.
With the Entrepreneurship degree course, he added, the aim is to increase modern knowledge in this area and create new jobs for youth, without waiting for state public tenders, as well as building the narrative of sustainable development with the use and exploitation of local resources.
Tsjeard Hoekstra said that the Netherlands intends to strengthen relations with the Faculties of Agricultural Science at the José Eduardos dos Santos University, to contribute to the promotion of food security and align technological precision in the Angolan agricultural sector, through the process of transferring knowledge in this field of investigation.
He also assured the need to establish an agricultural hub in the province of Huambo, to increase local productive results, with greater emphasis on tropical fruit crops where the Netherlands wants to quickly begin the process of exporting these cultural values to Europe, aiming at economic development in both countries.
To this end, he highlighted that this dynamic must be agreed upon by both countries so that it is possible to create thousands of jobs for young people, in the short and long term, with a focus on improving the population's living conditions.
In turn, the rector of the José Eduardo dos Santos University (UJES), Virginia Lacerda Quartin, said that the partnerships with the Netherlands in the field of research are positive and significant for improving the quality of teaching at the level of the institution that seeks to contribute to sustainable development.
She added that with the Netherlands it was possible to consolidate geo-spatial projects with the implementation of the GIS and the Entrepreneurship higher education course program, which is nearing completion, to increase self-employment capabilities.
She said that UJES intends to invest in the quality of teaching and increasingly associate itself with leading universities in the world, such as Wageningen and Amsterdam, for the training of human capital and tools that allow a better capacity for practices to boost the startup of small businesses.
The Dutch delegation led by the director for Africa of Netherlands Affairs, Martine Van Hoogstraten, ended its three-day tour of this region of the Central Plateau of Angola, with a visit to the FCA's geo-spatial laboratory and the works on the Logistics Platform of the Caála, in addition to being received, in audience, by the vice-governor for the Political, Social and Economic sector, Angelino Elavoco, with whom issues of common interest were discussed. LT/JSV/ALH/DOJ
