The government of Equatorial Guinea continues to heavily invest its oil revenues in the country’s education and health sectors despite of the oil market prices fluctuations, said Secretary of State for Finance and Budgets, Milagrosa Obono Angue during the Sixth Conference of Diplomatic Missions held in Malabo from March 27-30, 2015.
Despite the current economic downturn the West African nation is currently experiencing due to worldwide decline in oil prices, Equatorial Guinea has made new oil discoveries along its coasts and has renewed contracts with oil companies operating in the country, such as Exxon Mobil. It is moving forward with its industrialization plan, which aims to create a guide for the development of sustainable industry and a diversified economy
The conference aimed to review the country’s foreign policy with the assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, diplomatic personnel and their dependents. “It also serves as an avenue to share experiences, concerns and difficulties, to receive the necessary guidance to analyze and strengthen the positions to defend the policy designed by the Government of Equatorial Guinea abroad,” said President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo during the opening ceremony.
The country has made the health and education sectors a top priority. The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare launched the first malaria vaccine trial in partnership with Sanaria, a U.S. biotechnology company that produces a vaccine based on an approach to immunization that has already proven highly protective in humans, and the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI),Tanzania’s health research organization.
The country has an adult literacy rate of nearly 100%--the highest in Africa. The Ministry of Education has recently has partnered with StoneHill Education, an educational consultancy firm, to launch the American University of Central Africa in the city of Oyala, Equatorial Guinea, this fall.