DIPLOMACY
Cape Verdean President Pedro Pires will begin an official visit to Germany tomorrow, on the invitation of German President Horst Köhler. The official visit will be the first by a Cape Verdean head of state to the largest economy in Europe and the third-largest economy in the world. Discussions are expected to center on matters related to Cape Verde’s special partnership with the European Union, cooperative security and renewable energy. German authorities are also expected to request Cape Verde’s support in its bid to occupy a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (A Semana).
Venezuela plans to install an oil refinery in Cape Verde, the Cape Verdean Foreign Minister said last week on announcing the signing of a deal in the energy sector with that Latin American country. José Brito, who represented Cape Verde at the recent South America-Africa summit in Venezuela, said that the deal also outlined the installation of a fuel supply warehouse on the archipelago, which is located on the route between the American, African and European continents (Macauhub).
GOVERNANCE
The 2009 Ibrahim African Governance Index was published by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an organization which encourages quality leadership in Africa. Cape Verde came in second of the 53 African counties classified by the Index, which is considered the most important indicator of governance in Africa (A Semana).
Cape Verde fell three positions on the United Nations Human Development Index rating, and is now in 121st place. Angola, on the other hand, was the Portuguese-speaking country that showed the greatest improvement in the list, going from 157th to 143rd place (A Semana).
TOURISM
Minister of Labor, Professional Training and Social Solidarity Madalena Neves presided over the grand opening Thursday of the Gira Lua Tourist Space, located in Pai António, in the municipality of Mosteiros. The space is intended to encourage residential tourism in this coffee-producing zone of the island of Fogo (A Semana).
SHIPPING
The up-and-coming company Continental Shipping has announced its intention to enter the US-Cape Verde cargo transport market. Its first shipment is scheduled to depart from the United States in November, with its cargo arriving in Cape Verde on time for the Christmas season (A Semana).
TRADE & INVESTMENTS
Cape Verde is the second-largest market of Portuguese exports among Africa’s Portuguese-language countries, the Bank of Portugal has revealed. Cape Verde received a total of € 259.1 million in exports from Portugal. Portuguese investment abroad also grew 7.8% last year. Cape Verde received 1.9% of the € 628.8 million invested by the Portuguese in Africa’s lusophone countries, the largest receptor of Portuguese investment of which was Angola, with 92.5% of the total (A Semana).
The Boa Vista and Maio Integrated Tourist Development Corporation (SDTIBM) will promote a meeting with some 50 Cape Verdean and foreign investors on October 15 in order to present tourist investment opportunities on the two islands. The meeting will take place on Boa Vista (A Semana).
ATLANTICO
Micro and small companies from Portuguese-speaking African countries are to be supported as part of a technical cooperation agreement with Brazil, a Sebrae official said in Rio de Janeiro. José Marcelo de Miranda of Sebrae said that cooperation with Mozambique had been in place since 2008 in the areas of handicrafts and family farming and added that in Cape Verde’s case activities would begin this year (Macauhub).
