ELECTIONS

The voter registration process in Cape Verdean communities abroad has reached a total of 19,410 émigrés so far, approximately 74% of the goal set by the government. The émigré drive will conclude in one month, and officials hope to have registered 25,000 Cape Verdeans living abroad by that time (A Semana).

DIASPORA

A native of Fogo Island, immigrant naturalized U.S. citizen; John Gomes could become, in 2011, the first Cape Verdean-born to be elected mayor to an American city: Bridgeport, Connecticut (Visao).

CORRUPTION

Cape Verde has risen one position to 45th place, with 5.1 points, on the 2010 Corruption Perception Index. Cape Verde is the third best-rated African country, after only Botswana, with 5.8 points, and Mauritius, with 5.4 points. The report is elaborated annually by Transparency International (A Semana).

BOA VISTA

Dublin-based businessman Ciarán Maguire, who is being sued by a group of investors in the €100 million Palm View resort on Boa Vista, has claimed that he refunded their deposits to the sales agency but that the money has not been passed on to the investors (Sunday Business Post).

SAL

SOS Tartarugas on the island of Sal is recruiting new volunteers for the protection of turtles next year (Turtle Conservation Jobs).

SANTO ANTAO

The damage caused to roads in the municipalities of Ribeira Grande and Paúl (Santo Antão) and Ribeira Brava and Tarrafal (São Nicolau) by flash flooding last weekend has begun to be repaired, according to assurances given to A Semana Online by Minister of Infrastructures, Transportation and Telecommunications Manuel Inocêncio Sousa.

The rains that fell over the weekend have cut off access roads to a number of zones and villages in the countryside of the municipality of Porto Novo, on the island of Santo Antão (A Semana).

DIASPORA

24-year-old Leila Lopes was born in Benguela, Angola, the daughter of Cape Verdean immigrants. She was recently crowned “Queen of Angolan beauty in the United Kingdom” and will participate in the Miss Angola 2011 competition, scheduled for December 18 (A Semana).

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

Render of the La Collette appartments on the outskirts of Santa Maria, Sal (source).

ECONOMY

Some 24,000 people work in the informal sector in Cape Verde, according to a National Statistics Institute (INE) study made public today. The largest single portion of these units is found on the island of Santiago, with a particular concentration in Praia. The informal economy is a much more urban than rural phenomenon, and is characterized by a number of weaknesses (A Semana).

AVIATION

Private airline Halcyonair’s new aircraft – its second – has been christened “Santa Catarina” in honor of the company’s first clients, who would often travel among Cape Verde’s various islands to work on construction sites or in hotels on the islands of Boa Vista and Sal.

Passenger traffic at Cape Verde airports has increased in the third trimester of 2010 by 13.9 percent compared to the same period of 2009, representing an increase of 58.236 passengers within a total of 478.118 (Inforpress).

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

BOA VISTA

The fifty-odd dolphins that beached themselves and died on Estoril beach on the island of Boa Vista have been buried at the spot where they came ashore (A Semana).

The island of Boa Vista is facing a shortage of drinking water that began Thursday of last week. According to A Semana Online’s sources on the island, the situation is a delicate one, and could have been worse if the population has not taken advantage of water from recent rains to clean their homes and wash their clothes.

FOGO

The public University of Cape Verde, Uni-CV, inaugurates on Saturday the Vocational higher education courses for young people of the islands Fogo and Brava (Inforpress).

DIASPORA

A native of Fogo Island, immigrant naturalized U.S. citizen; John Gomes could become, in 2011, the first Cape Verdean-born to be elected mayor to an American city: Bridgeport, Connecticut (Visao).

SAL

A petition featuring more than one thousands signatures of individuals in favor turning Santa Maria, on the island of Sal, into its own municipality, was submitted to National Assembly speaker Aristides Pereira (A Semana).

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SANTIAGO

The official opening of the 2010/2011 academic year at the University of Cape Verde (Uni-CV) Tuesday was marked by the unveiling of new facilities on the university’s Palmarejo campus in Praia (A Semana).

SANTO ANTAO

The first step has been taken towards allowing agriculture on Santo Antão to have a “major positive impact” on families and on poverty reduction on the island. With the opening of the Agricultural Product Inspection and Conservation Center in the city of Porto Novo, farmers now see their potential market expanded after more than 20 years of embargo on the island’s vegetable products (A Semana).

SAO VICENTE

Judiciary Police seized two vehicles owned by suspects in the São Vicente municipal chamber land sale scandal. The vehicles in question belong to municipal secretary Avelino Lopes da Silva and Auriza, the wife of municipal chamber employee Victor Estrela (A Semana).

Negligence on the part of a Chinese fishing vessel docked near the Cabnave shipyard in Mindelo resulted in a fuel spill that produced a slick more than 20 meters long, obliging the Maritime Police to declare nearby Laginha beach improper for bathing (A Semana).

AGRI

Agriculture is seeing a major boost in Cape Verde, with massive investments in irrigation, infrastructure, disease control and distribution. Age-old bottlenecks are finally overcome (Afrol).

AVIATION

Private airline Halcyonair’s new aircraft – its second – has been christened “Santa Catarina” in honor of the company’s first clients, who would often travel among Cape Verde’s various islands to work on construction sites or in hotels on the islands of Boa Vista and Sal.

Passenger traffic at Cape Verde airports has increased in the third trimester of 2010 by 13.9 percent compared to the same period of 2009, representing an increase of 58.236 passengers within a total of 478.118 (Inforpress).

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GAMBLING

The conditions for the development of gambling in Cape Verde are in place. Two specialists from the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Energy attended an intensive course in Portugal and Macau, and the Ministry has established the foundations to spur the development of gambling as an added feature of Cape Verde’s tourist industry (A Semana).

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

ELECTIONS

The number of Cape Verdean émigrés who have participated in the voter registration drive in the diaspora is up to 15,846, according to data from the Electoral Process Support Department (DGAPE). The figure, however, is far below the minimum target of 25,000 the DGAPE hopes to reach before the end of the operation on November 26 (A Semana).

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The Cape Verdean government has presented the US federal government with the documents for construction of the second Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) compact. Water supply and sanitation, records, higher education and support for the private sector are areas considered to be a priority by the Cape Verdean government which, “sought to identify the principal constraints on the country’s development” (Macauhub).

LAW ENFORCEMENT

A 27-year-old woman was arrested by Judiciary Police at Praia International Airport, in possession of 3.244 kilograms of cocaine. The young woman was disembarking from a flight that had arrived from the northeastern Brazilian city of Fortaleza (A Semana).

FOGO

The Saudi Development Fund and the Arab Bank for Economic Development of Africa (BADEA) are to fund part of the construction of a ring road on Fogo Island (Macauhub).

SAL

Sal’s first film festival started. Over the course of four days, the film arts will be on display for residents of and visitors to the island (A Semana).

SPLIT SECOND POLL

SANTO ANTAO

The millipede pest has once again cast a shadow over the agricultural season in Paúl, on the island of Santo Antão. The local agricultural service representative says that perspectives for this year’s harvest in the municipality are not good, despite the large quantities of rain that have fallen in the region’s valleys and mountains (A Semana).

SANTIAGO

A consortium of three Portuguese construction companies is already carrying out the second phase of work to expand and modernise the port of Praia, worth 72 million euros, following conclusion of the first part of the project  (Macauhub).

SAO VICENTE

The São Vicente municipal chamber has taken out a 151 million-escudo bank loan to pave and re-pave the main traffic arteries of the city of Mindelo. The contract for the execution of the work has been signed with Portuguese construction company Armando Cunha (A Semana).

Minister of Internal Administration Lívio Lopes unveiled the Secure Automatic Exit and Entry Processing system, known by the Portuguese-language acronym PASSE, at São Vicente International Airport and at Sâo Vicente sea port (A Semana).

ECONOMY

The homologous inflation rate registered by the Consumer Price Index in September was 2.7%, 0.3 percentage points lower than the previous month. The drop represents a change in the upward trend that had been seen since May of this year (A Semana).

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TRADE

Immigrants boost trade.  A Canadian study shows that statement holds true even with that country’s smaller trading partners. If one more Cape Verdean immigrates to Canada, that would increase exports to Cape Verde by about $300 (Globe & Mail).

AVIATION

Luxembourg’s flagship airway, Luxair, has begun flying to Cape Verde. A weekly flight between the European Grand Duchy and the islands of Sal and Boa Vista on a Boeing 737-800 is now being operated by the airline (A Semana).

BANKING

The Bank of West Africa of Guinea-Bissau and Caixa Económica of Cape Verde signed a cooperation protocol to support economic and commercial partnerships between the two countries (Inforpress).

SPLIT SECOND POLL

FISHING

Fishermen working in Cape Verde’s territorial waters will now be able to do so in the seas of São Tomé and Príncipe as well. The same will be the case for São Tomean fishermen, who are now allowed to fish in Cape Verde’s Exclusive Economic Zone. The two countries have signed a cooperation accord that also encompasses training and investigation in the fishing sector (A Semana).

ENERGY

The European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank will grant Cape Verde a 45 million-Euro loan for the four wind farms that are currently under construction on the islands of Santiago, Sal, São Vicente and Boa Vista. The two institutions consider Cape Verde’s renewable energy program a model, and highlight the fact that the wind farms will represent “the first large-scale production of wind energy in Africa” (A Semana).

TRANSPORT

The catamaran Kriola, the first of Cabo Verde Fast Ferry’s modern rapid marine transport vessels, will take to the seas in Singapore in a week and a half, more precisely on October 22, for final tests (A Semana).

HOTELS

Djad’Sal Hotel, on the island of Sal, closed its doors to clients and will try to re-organize in order to open again on December 15. Still uncertain is the future of the hotel’s workers, who have yet to be told if they will work during the two-month period (A Semana).

POLITICS

Cape Verde is fourth place in the 2010 Mo Ibrahim Index on governance. Angola ended up 43rd (Macauhub).

In Cape Verde popular wisdom has it that “empty sacks have no strength to transport flour” — hungry people cannot work, hungry children do not learn. With this in mind the small African nation has been diligently working to eliminate malnutrition and hunger (Allafrica).

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The deportation of Cape Verdean immigrants from the United States is the theme of a conference to be held on October 27 at Bridgewater State College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The conference is being promoted by the Cape Verdean Consulate in Boston (A Semana).

Cape Verdean diplomat José Luís Monteiro, who resides in Bern, Switzerland, has presented World Trade Organization general director Pascal Lamy with his letters of accreditation as the Cape Verdean government’s representative with the international organization (A Semana).

José Agnelo Sanches presented Cape Verde’s experience in the realm of poverty reduction during an ECOWAS symposium on “Development: new paths for Africa,” which took place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (A Semana).

President Pedro Pires presided over the Cape Verde Day activities at the Shanghai Expo. After the Shanghai engagement, Pedro Pires will head to Tripoli, Libya, where he will participate in the second Arab-African Summit on October 10 as a guest of the Libyan President (A Semana).

DEFENSE

Cape Verde and East Timor are planning to begin cooperation in the realm of security and defense. A delegation headed by the vice-commander of the East Timorese Armed Forces, Brigadier-General Cristóvão Tito da Costa, is currently in Cape Verde to discuss the perspectives for military cooperation (A Semana).

BOA VISTA

Camels in Cape Verde? It might seem like a ridiculous idea, but such a scenario has become reality on the island of Boa Vista, the brainchild of two Italian men and a Cape Verdean woman who have now put it into practice (A Semana).

FOGO

The plentiful rain recently experienced in Cape Verde has brought with it a number of pests. One of these, the well-known southern green stinkbug, has spread through a number of agricultural zones on the island of Fogo, including Achada Furna, Monte Largo, Fonte Aleixo, Jardim and Saltos, to farmers’ despair (A Semana).

SANTO ANTAO

Finding enough labor in the agriculture sector in the municipality of Porto Novo, on the island of Santo Antão, is a tough task at the moment. Despite this year’s plentiful rains, there is a shortage of hands to work the fields. The municipality’s landowners are taking advantage of what few workers there are to maintain their hopes for a good harvest (A Semana).

DIASPORA

Joaquim A. “Jack” Custodio, the “community consultant” who championed racial justice in New Bedford for more than half a century, died after a long illness. He was 96 (South Coast Today).

ECONOMY

The services sector accounts for 70 percent of Cape Verde’s gross domestic product (GDP), the Cape Verdean secretary of state for Foreign Affairs, Jorge Borges said (Macauhub).

Cape Verde’s debt to Portugal rose to 123.3 million euros, in this case due to a rise in direct debt to the Portuguese state, related to new pay outs on loans for road infrastructures (Macauhub).

SPLIT SECOND POLL

AVIATION

Luxembourg Luxair airline carried out the inaugural flight to Cape Verde, taking aboard 65 representatives of travel agencies and 30 journalists from Luxembourg, Belgium, France and Germany. The Luxair flights will be weekly to Sal and Boa Vista (Inforpress).

BANKING

The Praia neighborhood of Achada de Santo António is the site of the installations of Novo Banco de Cabo Verde, which opened its doors to the public. The Novo Banco de Cabo Verde aims to offer financial services and products that “correspond to a new approach to the banking market”, and intends to stand on “the front lines in the fight against the financial exclusion of members of lower income brackets and small businesses” (A Semana).

ENERGY

Portuguese company Avicano plans introducing a gas pipe network to provide Cape Verdean homes with direct gas hookups. Avicano managing associate Fátima Neto affirms that contacts have been made with Cape Verdean fuel distribution company Enacol and that, at least in an initial phase, the project would encompass only the city of Praia (A Semana).

Cape Verde’s first photovoltaic park is now in operation on the island of Sal, providing backup to the fossil fuel power station in Espargos. All of the park’s potential has been hooked up to the island’s main network (A Semana).

Cape Verde won 45 million euros ($62 million) in funding from the European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank to finance the construction of wind farms that will produce more than 28 megawatts of electricity (Bloomberg).

According to the EIB, “this will be the first large scale wind project in Africa and first renewable energy public private partnership in sub-Saharan Africa.” It is to stand model for other large-scale wind energy projects in Africa, which now may see the door open for external funding (Afrol).

TOURISM

The owner of the first UK tour operator to the Cape Verde islands is looking to sell his company. Cape Verde Travel has been offering packages to the islands since 1993, 15 years before the major operators such as Thompson moved in (TTG).

POLITICS

The Bank of Cape Verde (BCV) released the commemorative coin of 35 years of national independence and 550 years of discovery of Cape Verde (Inforpress).

Cape Verde’s population recorded 13 percent growth between 2000 and 2010, rising to 491,575 inhabitants, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced during presentation of the preliminary population census results (Macauhub).

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The International Monetary Fund concluded its latest mission to Cape Verde. Delegation leader Valerie Cerra praised the country’s “prudence” and the “clear” indicators of recovery of the Cape Verdean economy. Minister of Finance Cristina Duarte expressed satisfaction with the results of the IMF mission (A Semana).

The International African Book Salon, which is currently taking place on the island of Tenerife, in the Spanish Canary Islands, promoted a debate last weekend on the role of the translator. Cape Verdean writer Germano Almeida participated in the discussion (A Semana).

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Minister of Justice Marisa Morais confirmed to the media the extradition from the United States to Cape Verde of the former director the prison of São Martinho (surroundings of Praia), Carlos Graça (Inforpress).

Cape Verde and the United States of America signed a letter of agreement on the control of narcotics and law enforcement. The US Government granted a fund to the archipelago of 500 thousand dollars to strengthen institutions of criminal law (Inforpress).

BOA VISTA

The Boa Vista and Maio Integrated Tourist Development Corporation (known by the acronym SDTIBM) have developed an Economic and Social Fund in the city of Sal Rei. The fund is aimed at supporting programs to improve housing, employment and professional training conditions on the island of Boa Vista (A Semana).

SANTIAGO

The government of Cape Verde may soon begin construction of a ‘little Brasilia’ in the capital Praia to house the ministries and other public departments on the island – a project taken up by Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves. The local newspaper O Liberal reported that the idea was born during the recent visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to Sal Island and has an approximate cost of 150 million euros (17 billion Cape Verdean escudos) (Macauhub).

SANTO ANTAO

Two homes owned by Cape Verdean émigrés from the city of Porto Novo have been broken in to over the past several days, causing considerable losses to the owners (A Semana).

One hundred and fifteen farmers of Santo Antão shall benefit from three local irrigation systems, an investment of nine thousand contos, said the Minister of Environment, Rural Development and Marine Resources, José Maria Veiga (Inforpress).

ECONOMY

Cape Verde has already begun to feel signs of recovery from the international crisis. The affirmation comes from Minister of Finances Cristina Duarte, who reveals that customs revenues in the country grew by more than 60 million escudos between 2009 and 2010 (A Semana).

The European Union (EU) has just concluded, preliminarily, that Cape Verde has fulfilled almost the totality of the recommendations on the quality control of fishery products issued by its inspectors in 2009, having thus been able to export to Europe (Inforpress).

BANKING

The Bank of Cape Verde (BCV), which celebrated its 35th anniversary, plans soon to boost its role as a regulator of financial institutions operating in the country, its chairman Manuel Frederico said (Macauhub).

ENERGY

The project for the wind farms currently being installed in Cape Verde was presented to the public in Mindelo. The 65 million-Euro project, according to the president of Cabeólica, Fábio Borba, will allow Cape Verde to save some 20,000 metric tons of fuel per year – a volume worth some 12 million Euros (A Semana).

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SPLIT SECOND POLL

PORTS

With the exception of a few minor adjustments work has concluded and the unveiling of the first phase of the expansion of Praia sea port is scheduled to take place on October 14 (A Semana).

TOURISM

Since the beginning of this year, Cape Verde’s tourism sector has been growing rapidly after a year of low revenues (Afrol).

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Six west African nations, among which Cape Verde,  agreed to delineate their maritime boundaries in what are thought to be oil-and-gas rich Atlantic coastal waters. The accord, overseen by Norway, a major energy producer, seeks to allow Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal to share the huge ocean area. Norway will help the costly work of mapping the continental shelf (AFP).

Cape Verde has already nearly halved the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, as well as the proportion of people living below the minimum level of dietary consumption. It has managed to successfully overcome its “double insularity” – it is far from its African neighbors, and individual islands are far from each other -especially in regard to the cost of basic economic inputs, transportation and communications, through good governance, proper management of internal and external resources, and strong global partnerships (AllAfrica).

SANTO ANTAO

The first-ever voluntary tree-planting campaign on Santo Antão’s Eastern Plateau, which took place after heavy rainfall in the region, was a success (A Semana).

The rains that fell on the island of Santo Antão caused damage in various parts of the island. The most complicated situation is on the island’s Eastern Plateau (A Semana).

SAO VICENTE

The São Vicente wind farm will be officially born on Tuesday, September 28 in the Monte Selada district of the island. The partners in the project – the Department of Energy, Electra and InfraCo – will also publicly present the project for the construction of four wind farms in Cape Verde (A Semana).

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

Render of the Triangle Project for Calhau, Sao Vicente (Source).

AVIATION

The passengers on TACV Cabo Verde Airlines flight 6060 had a scare when the Praia-Lisbon flight, which left the Cape Verdean capital at 9:40 am, saw a sudden depressurization 40 minutes after takeoff (A Semana).

TACV Cabo Verde Airlines cancelled four flights to the islands of São Vicente and Fogo. Based on information gathered by A Semana Online, at least four of the company’s pilots are ill with the virus that has been assailing Cape Verde for more than a month (A Semana).

REAL ESTATE

Strong investor demand for one bedroom apartments in a luxury resort in Cape Verde has prompted the developer to revise plans and build more.
At a time when many development resorts are not selling well and financing can be difficult to secure, the Resort Group Plc said it has been stunned by demand in the five star Dunas Beach Resort and Spa on Ponta Preta Beach on the west coast of Sal Island in Cape Verde (PropertyWire).

TELECOMS

The telecoms regulator for the Atlantic island nation of Cape Verde recently announced a tender for 3G licenses. The National Agency of the Communications (ANAC) said that it plans to offer a total of three 3G licenses and one GSM license in the tender (CN).