There is a bright future ahead the city of Porto and Angola
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The President of the Republic of Angola, João Lourenço, visited Porto City Hall this morning.
During the visit, Mayor Rui Moreira symbolically handed over the keys to the City of Porto to the Angolan President as a symbol of friendship and the "strong resolve by both peoples to build a very substantive future", which is already reflected in the exchange of persons and goods between Porto and Luanda.
João Lourenço, in turn, highlighted that the naming of the city as the Invicta (Unvanquished city) translates a "hard working city, a wining city when it comes to achieving its aims, and a dynamic city in the way it presents itself to the outside world, powering ahead performance wise, regarding its industries, sports, culture and other sectors of national life".
The common language shared by both countries is "an extraordinary asset, unifying both cultures, where the new generations take an interest on what goes on in each country", furthered Rui Moreira.
On behalf of Portans, the Mayor of Porto commended the gradual progress in Angola, also stating that "the President of Angola is among friends in Porto. An old and still and always close cooperation that the city has with Angola".
Porto and Luanda are twin sisters since 1999.
"There has always been an Angolan community in Porto", said Rui Moreira, enhancing the many students that have graduated in the University of Porto and at Porto Polytechnique.
Also in Porto, "entrepreneurs and businesspeople pay due attention to the Angolan market, and named the examples of projects such as Kinda Home, already established in Viana do Castelo and about to inaugurate a store in Porto, "an investment that amounts to more than 20 million euros".
Regarding the transport sector, the Mayor of Porto said that "The Port of Leixões has an important trade destination for its commercial vessels in Angola", and stressed TAAG, Angola Airlines, the state-owned national airline of Angola, based in Luanda, "which offers the North of Portugal and the region of Galicia a high quality service, by providing direct flights from and to the city of Luanda".
"The heroic history of your city is paralleled by some cities in Angola, where its peoples knew how to fight with stoicism to defend and extend the value of liberty of their cities", the President of Angola enthused, thanking the warm welcoming in Porto and acknowledging that "this ceremony has open doors to a promising future in cooperation and exchange at all levels, in terms also of bilateral relations".