Last updated in April 2009
After President Obiang assumed power in 1979, bilateral relations between Germany and Equatorial Guinea improved. Under his predecessor, the bloody dictator Macias, there had been only sporadic contacts. Germany provided development cooperation until the mid-1990s. Since then, Equatorial Guinea’s development has not been reliant on external funding thanks to the country’s revenue from oil and natural gas.
Over the past three years, there has been a marked increase in bilateral trade. While German trade with Equatorial Guinea was worth just EUR 36 million in 2005, it increased to EUR 127.7 million in 2008. German exports to Equatorial Guinea were worth approximately EUR 23 million in 2008, and imports from there about EUR 105 million. Germany’s main imports from Equatorial Guinea are oil, natural gas and chemical pre-products, and its main exports are machinery, steel pipes, food and motor vehicles.
The oil boom offers business opportunities for German companies, too, but doing business there involves considerable risks because of the lack of legal certainty.
A German company is building an airport near to the President’s native village, Mongomo.
A German company has participated in Equatorial Guinea’s second liquefied natural gas train since 2008.
In April 2008, German Lufthansa began operating direct flights from Frankfurt to Malabo.
In 2005, Equatorial Guinea opened an embassy in Berlin. From 6 to 10 April 2009, Equatorial Guinea’s Foreign Minister Pastor Micho Ondo Bilé visited Berlin, where he held talks with Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal Economics Minister Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg, and the Chairman of the German Bundestag’s Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the States of West and Central Africa, Hartwig Fischer. Federal Foreign Minister Steinmeier told his counterpart that Germany would open an embassy in Malabo in 2011.
