POLITICS

The National Assembly has approved the new journalists’ statute, which consecrates the mandatory need to have a degree of higher learning in journalism in order to practice the profession in Cape Verde (A Semana).

Former Portuguese president Ramalho Eanes admits that the decolonization process carried out by Portugal in 1975 “was not the best,” but even so considers the idea that Cape Verde should not have become independent, voiced several days ago by his successor, former Portuguese president Mário Soares, “not very reasonable” (A Semana).

DEFENCE

Cape Verde may be chosen to host the headquarters of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Naval Logistics Base (A Semana).

ECONOMY

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected 5% growth in the Cape Verdean economy for this year, a figure expected to improve to 5.5% in 2011, according to the institution’s World Economic Outlook (A Semana).

ENERGY

The island of São Vicente experienced several power outages Wednesday, April 21, particularly on the outskirts of the city of Mindelo and other villages, where the blackout lasted for more than 16 consecutive hours. According to water and electricity utility Electra, the power cuts were caused by a technical problem in the main generator at the Lazareto power station (A Semana).

AGRICULTURE

“The lifting of the embargo on agricultural products from the island of Santo Antão is scheduled to take place in July,” according to Minister of the Environment, Rural Development and Marine Resources José Maria Veiga (A Semana).

The City hall of Ribeira Grande de Santiago joins today to the Earth Day with a programme of distribution and planting fruit trees, in the Cidade Velha (Inforpress).

TELECOM

The project for the extension of Cabo Verde Telecom’s fiber optics network in Chã das Caldeiras on the island of Fogo will move forward with the placement of aerial rather than underground cables, despite recent protests by local residents, who feared the aerial cables would jeopardize the area’s natural beauty (A Semana).

HEALTH

Cape Verde is among the 10 countries oin Africa that have managed to decrease malaria prevalence in its territory by approximately 50 percent between 2000 and 2008, as WHO data show (Inforpress).

TRAVEL & TOURISM

The certification process is delaying the arrival of new plane ATR of the private air carrier Halcyonair (Inforpress).

The confidence indicator for the Tourism sector in Cape Verde in the first quarter posted its lowest level since 2002, the year in which the archipelago’s National Statistics Institute (INE) first launched the series of Company Economic Climate Surveys (Macauhub).

POLITICS

Former Portuguese President Mário Soares expressed his opinion that Cape Verde “should not have been independent” and that the archipelago “would have a lot to gain” in having avoided breaking away from Portugal. “I always thought that Cape Verde should not have been independent, and that’s why I didn’t watch Cape Verde’s independence,” he said (A Semana).

The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, called the development of special partnership between the EU and Cape Verde a “remarkable success”, highlighting the ongoing negotiation for the visa facilitation agreement (Inforpress).

TRANSPORT

The second Cabo Verde Fast Ferry vessel is to be called “Liberdadi”. The name of the first vessel is Kriola. Construction of the first of the two ferries is expected to be concluded by October of this year. The second ferry, according to Cabo Verde Fast Ferry, is slated to be finished in January of 2011 (A Semana).

TELECOMS

Minister of Infrastructures, Transportation and Telecommunications Manuel Inocêncio Sousa presided on April 17 over the launch of the company Cabo TLC at the headquarters of the Windward Islands Commercial Association in Mindelo. Cabo TLC is a telecommunications company that will use VoIP technology to provide clients with communication at a relatively low cost (A Semana).

Seven out of every 10 cape Verdean inhabitants have a mobile phone according to figures presented Wednesday by the National Communication Agency (ANAC), according to which mobile telephone service subscribers now total 350,000, out of a total population of 500,000 (Macauhub).

LAND

Minister of Decentralization and Territorial Management Sara Lopes said that the government wants all of the municipal land management instruments elaborated by 2011 and that the country’s municipalities should conclude their Municipal Directive Plans by that time (A Semana).

TOURISM

Portuguese tourism company Soltrópico, which specializes in vacations to Cape Verde, has launched a travel package for the islands of Santiago and Fogo between May 1 and October 24 (A Semana).

AGRICULTURE

A small technical team led by the hydrogeology technician Mota Gomes is on Santo Antão, conducting studies to build at least three small dams on that island (Inforpress).

The cultivation of grapes in Chã de Caldeiras and in the uplands of the municipality of Mosteiros, Fogo Island, doubled in the last 30 years. In the year 2009  over 50 thousand new vine plants haven been planted (Inforpress).

EDUCATION

The Prime-minister, José Maria Neves, said that the Government created the Business and Governance School at the University of Cape Verde (Uni-CV) with the objective to train new enterprise leaders (Inforpress).

ENERGY

Construction work on the solar power plants in Praia and on Sal have begun, the Cape Verdean authorities have said. The two facilities will reduce CO2 emissions by 13,000 tons per year and provide around 4 percent of Cape Verde’s entire electricity production capacity (Macauhub).

POLITICS

National Assembly speaker Aristides Lima received a petition this week from a group of approximately 160 citizens of European Union and other European countries expressing their concern with a series of phenomena and problems affecting their lives and their investments on the island of Boa Vista (A Semana).

ECONOMY

A lack of workers is making this year’s sugar cane harvest difficult on Santo Antão island and jeopardizing the deadlines of some of the public works under way in the northern portion of the island (A Semana).

In 2008 the Cape Verdean market had 3,689 Portuguese companies exporting goods and services, or 7.5 percent more than in 2003, the delegate of the Portuguese trade and investment promotion agency, AICEP said (Macauhub).

ENERGY

The Alentejo Regional Development Agency (ADRAL), a Portuguese-Cape Verdean consortium, is preparing a small-scale solar and wind energy generating project for the island of Fogo in partnership with the Portuguese town of Ferreira and the company Open Renewables (A Semana).

The blackout that left Praia without electricity also paralyzed the capital city’s international airport. The situation was chaotic, with those in the terminal in utter darkness, while passengers arriving on TACV flight 6070 from Portugal were retained inside the aircraft for more than 40 minutes (A Semana).

BUSINESS

Anglo-Dutch corporation Shell has announced that it is in the process of selling its 21 affiliates in Africa, including that in Cape Verde. According to website Visão News, the decision is aimed at eliminating less profitable business dealings and concentrating capital in large-scale projects liable to increase the company’s stock and distribution of petroleum and gas (A Semana).

DEFENCE

The Armed Forces (AF) will in May recruit for the first time 10 to 12 women to attend the first course of female corporals (Inforpress).

REAL ESTATE

The Tecnicil company, owner of the Vila Verde resort on Sal, will start a  sales campaign aimed at Cape Verdean families to buy flats in the resort (Inforpress).

POLITICS

The Cape Verdean government does not have enough diplomats to place in all of the countries where Cape Verdean communities exist, Minister of Foreign Affairs José Brito, admitted (A Semana).

ECONOMY

2010 began with a 10.2% drop in remittances from Cape Verdean émigrés in January, in comparison to the month before. And those remittances coming from the United States and the Euro Zone saw even more drastic drops, of 11.8% and 11.1%, respectively, in comparison to December 2009 (A Semana).

ATLANTICO

The 4th General Cape Verdean Population and Housing Census will be carried out in 2010 with the support of Brazil, which will make 150 handheld computers, known as PDAs, available for census-taking activities. The technology, which was developed by the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute (IBGE), will be used to count the population and in the training of Cape Verdean census-takers (A Semana).

The Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Service is preparing three business missions in April,  to China, Brazil and Canary Islands (Inforpress).

HOTELS

Six of Cape Verde’s hotels have been nominated for the 17th edition of the World Travel Awards. The Oásis Atlântico Novorizonte, Oásis Atlântico PraiaMar, Dunal del Sol, Foya Branca, Morabeza and Migrante Guest House have been nominated in the Cape Verde’s Leading Hotel category (A Semana).

The proposed 7star Palm View Resort on Boa Vista was awarded building licenses by the Cape Verdean authorities. The luxury will be constructed on the  exclusive beach front of Chaves Beach (Visao News).

TELECOMS

Cape Verde jumped from 107th to 102nd place on the list of countries in terms of the development of information and communication technology. Cape Verde occupies fourth place in Africa (A Semana).