Atlantico Weekly

Cape Verde Politics & Islands

In Cape Verde, Elections, Politics on September 3, 2010 at 8:36 am

ELECTIONS

“Carlos Veiga 2011” is the official site for the MpD leader’s 2011 legislative elections campaign, an interactive page featuring all of the candidate’s events. The site also reveals more about Carlos Veiga as a person, his campaign platform and highlights of what the MpD did in the 1990s when it controlled Cape Verde’s government (A Semana).

The updating of the list of registered voters in the country is proceeding, in general, at a relatively slow pace. As of August 20, only some 3,000 of the 7,285 citizens who will turn 18 by December 31 had registered to vote in the country’s main urban centers – Praia, Mindelo, São Filipe, Assomada and Sal (A Semana).

Atlantico Weekly readers overwhelmingly think the incumbent PAICV government will win the Cape Verde national elections of 2011 with up to 65% of votes cast in the last two weeks. The oppostion MpD trails with 29%, with rightwing UCID receiving just 6%.

POLITICS

Law nº 77/VII/2010, which officially makes cities out of all municipal seats in Cape Verde, went into effect September 2. As a result, the country gets 18 new cities, in addition to Porto Novo, Mindelo, Praia, Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Assomada and São Filipe, which already enjoyed city status (A Semana).

LAW ENFORCEMENT

A 23-year-old Guinea Bissauan woman was arrested as she tried to embark on a flight to Cape Verde transporting some five kilograms of cocaine. Federal police agents at Pinto Martins International Airport in Fortaleza, the capital of the Brazilian state of Ceará, made the arrest on Monday, August 30 (A Semana).

In the early hours of 27 August HMS Gloucester of the British Royal Navy, with an embarked Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDet) from Cape Verde, boarded a suspect yacht believed to be carrying cocaine in the mid-Atlantic. The vessel ‘TORTUGA’, registered in Florida, was taken to Cape Verde where authorities discovered cocaine, with a UK street value of at least four million pounds sterling, hidden within the rudder (MOD).

BOA VISTA & SAL

Captivated by Cape Verde. All adrift in the tiny archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic. Thus reads the titel of a nice article in the Daily Mail.

SANTIAGO

A power outage again has affected most of the city of Praia. Executive administrator of water and electricity utility Electra, Rui Spencer Lopes dos Santos, says that scheduled energy cuts intended to facilitate maintenance and a short-circuit in Palmarejo are the reasons behind the extended blackout (A Semana).

SANTO ANTAO

The second edition of the Tour de Santo Antão bicycle race started in the city of Porto Novo. The race, sponsored by the Santo Antão Cycling Association (ACSA) and the Melo Driving School, will feature six legs (A Semana).

SAO VICENTE

Garlic and onions are practically nowhere to be found – or bought – on the island of São Vicente, with local residents forced to trek all over the city of Mindelo to make a purchase (A Semana).

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Cape Verde Business & Economy

In Agriculture, Cape Verde, Economy, Hotels, Ports, Real estate, Telecom, Tourism on September 3, 2010 at 8:35 am

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

The Vista Oceano residential complex, under development in the town of Ponta do Sol on Santo Antao (Source).

PORTS

Portuguese construction consortium Somague/MSF/Etermar is to carry out the second phase of work to expand and modernise the port of Praia, worth 72 million euros (Macauhub).

HOTELS

Hilton appears to be developing at least one hotel in Cape Verde, among other countries (Reuters).

TWITTER & LINKEDIN

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AGRI

Brazil’s Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) will set up a pole of its rural development studies center in Cape Verde. The initiative was announced during a visit by Brazilian Minister of Agriculture Guilherme Cassel to the University (A Semana).

TELECOMS

Labor union SITTHUR claims that more than 90% of the employees of Cabo Verde Telecom have joined the two-day strike called at the company. The walk-out began this morning throughout nearly all of Cape Verde’s territory – Brava was the exception – and is scheduled to last until midnight Friday (A Semana).

AVIATION

The strongest growth, in terms of absolute numbers, in Portugal’s charter flight market is for destinations in Cape Verde. Charter flights departing from Lisbon and Porto took transported nearly 8,000 passengers to the archipelago in July of this year, 3,800 more than in the same month last year (A Semana).

POWER

Acts of sabotage perpetrated by employees of water and electricity utility Electra or by unknown individuals may be behind a serious technical problem that took place in one of the main generators at the Palmarejo power station in Praia. The problem has since been resolved (A Semana).

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Angola Business News

In Angola, Biofuels, Economy, Hotels, Infrastructure, Investments, Oil, Politics on September 3, 2010 at 8:34 am

POLITICAL RISK

Angola’s ruling MPLA party emerged victorious from a 27-year civil war in 2002 promising a better life for Angolans but this dream is fading as corruption is rife and the government is seen failing to help the poor. Read the political risk analysis at Reuters.

ECONOMY

Angola’s foreign exchange reserves dropped slightly for the second straight month to $15.29 billion in July from $15.52 billion in June, the central bank said (Reuters).

Investment in Angola’s private sector in the first half totalled US$1.255 billion, almost three times the US$450 million invested in the same period of 2009 (Macauhub).

Public works, education and transport projects have benefited most from credit concession agreement between the China Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) and Angola, which now total US$4.547 billion (Macauhub).

OIL

Angolan authorities cut gasoline and diesel subsidies as a prelude to liberalising the country’s downstream oil sector, triggering a steep rise in pump prices and the threat of protests from irate motorists (Reuters).

TWITTER & LINKEDIN

You can now follow Atlantico Weekly on Twitter at atlanticoweekly.

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CONSTRUCTION

Portugal’s largest builder Mota-Engil expects Angola to settle its debt with the company by the end of the first quarter, Chief Financial Officer Luis Silva said (Reuters).

INFRA

The Angolan government asked for financial and technological support from Japan for the construction of a bridge between the provinces of Zaire and Cabinda, the National Private Investment Agency (ANIP) said (Macauhub).

The Luanda/Malanje railroad, which has been undergoing reconstruction since 2005, in the next two months will be able to operate an experimental freight train, the Deputy Transport Minister for the railway sector said (Macauhub).

BIOFUELS

Biofuels companies from the U.K. to Brazil and China are buying up large swaths of Africa including Angola, causing deforestation and diverting land from food to fuel production, the environmental group Friends of the Earth said (Bloomberg).

HOTELS

The Boavista neighbourhood of Angola’s capital, Luanda will soon have a new hotel called “Empreendimento Pestana Luanda Hotel e Suites,” with 230 rooms, 50 of which will be suites (Macauhub).

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