Angola has submitted preliminary files to UNESCO to register Mbanza Congo city of the northern Zaire province as a world heritage, Minister of Culture Rosa Cruze Silva announced here on Thursday.

The minister made the announcement to journalists at the end of a meeting of the cabinet's social policy commission that reviewed a presidential decree bill to establish a historical center of in Mbanza Congo. The meeting was chaired Vice President Manuel Domingos Vicente.

A special committee would be set up and tasked with coordinating, following up and monitoring the implementation of the plan of management and conservation of the historical center in Mbanza Congo and to ensure its integration in the development process of the Zaire province.

The minister said her ministry was working towards the definite and finalized submission of Mbanza Congo's bid for the world heritage status.

The Angolan government planned to develop Mbanza Congo, now provincial capital of Zaire, into a capital of the national culture as it was believed to be the cradle of Angolan ancestors, who already had political, administrative and religious structures properly organized toward the development of the city before the arrival of the Portuguese colonialists in the 15th century.

The project "Mbanza Congo, city to unearth and preserve" was launched in 2007, with an international round table that discussed the issue.

Currently, a team of national and foreign specialists was engaged in archeological studies in the city, to find vestiges that prove the exceptional and universal value of Mbanza Congo, seeking its inclusion on the list of the UNESCO's world heritage. Endi

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