AIRPORTS

Minister of Infrastructures and Transportation Manuel Inocêncio Sousa has affirmed that Airport and Air Security company ASA has had its Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) approved for São Vicente’s international airport. The approval of the PAPI was the final step in the conclusion of the airport’s certification process, and, as such, the airport is now ready to open for international flights (A Semana).

CAPITAL

Praia municipal chamber president Ulisses Correia e Silva has kept his promise to submit the report elaborated following an audit into the administration of his predecessor, Felisberto Vieira, to the Attorney General’s Office, the Court of Accounts and the Ministry of Decentralization, Housing and Territorial Ordering (A Semana).

BUSINESS

The Ministry of the Economy, Growth and Competitiveness is carrying out a study on business opportunities in Cape Verde in partnership with the University of Cape Verde (UniCV). According to State Secretary of the Economy Humberto Brito, the study is aimed at offering potential investors and Cape Verdean entrepreneurs a guiding document to help them identify the sectors in which investments may or may not be profitable (A Semana).

TOURISM

While on the tourism sector on the island of Boa Vista is growing exponentially, on nearby Sal hotel managers are tightening their belts in order to get through the current crisis. Boa Vista is now registering hotel occupation rates between 70% and 95%, dethroning former champion Sal, where the tourism sector is in freefall: the occupation rate in the island’s main hotels has not surpassed 50% during the summer of 2009 (A Semana).

AIR TRAVEL

Cape Verde’s Civil Aeronautics Agency has extended private company Halcyon Airways’ air operations certificate for a two-year period. After detailed and rigorous inspections carried out in the months of June and July, the aeronautics authority deemed the relatively new company fit to have its certificate renewed until July of 2011. A similar inspection to Cape Verde’s national carrier TACV had less positive results (A Semana).

WATER

Portugal will finance the construction of three dams to capture rainwater in Cape Verde in a scheme valued at €100 million. The dams will be built at Salineiro, in the council of Ribeira Grande, at Tabugal in Santa Catarina and at Faveta in Sao Salvador to Mundo – all on Santiago Island, where Cape Verde’s sole existing dam was built at Poilao in 2006 (Macauhub).