ELECTIONS

Manuel Inocêncio Sousa promises to give special attention and support to media outlets, particularly in the private sector, if elected President of the Republic in the August 7 elections. The PAICV-endorsed candidate acknowledges the work and efforts of the press in the process of the development, affirmation and consolidation of democracy in the country (A Semana).

SPLIT SECOND POLL

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INTERNATIONAL

Former Providence mayor and current Rhode Island state representative in the United States Congress David Cecillini has revealed that he is planning a visit to Cape Verde by a group of US congressmen (A Semana).

Praia mayor Ulisses Correia e Silva is in Israel, where, after participating in the International Conference of Mayors, he visited Masada National Park and the Dead Sea (A Semana).

Cape Verde and five other African countries are due in October to start gathering seismic and hydrographical data as part of a project to extend their continental shelves beyond 200 nautical miles, the Cape Verdean director-general for Global Affairs said (Macauhub).

SANTO ANTAO

The third edition of tourism trade fair Expotur, organized by the Directorate General of Tourism, will take place in the city of Porto Novo, on the island of Santo Antão, between June 24 and 26, during the local patron saint festivities. A total of 50 entities have already signed up to occupy the stands at the event, meaning that all available exposition space will be occupied (A Semana).

SAO VICENTE

The president of the São Vicente municipal assembly has written a letter to mayor Augusto Neves in which he calls on the municipal chamber to inform the municipal assembly regarding everything related to the sale of municipal lands and buildings. The objective, according to municipal assembly president João Gomes, is to “correct practices that do not coincide with legal provisions” and achieve “greater transparency and rigor in the management of the public trust” (A Semana).

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PROJECT OF THE WEEK

The count down has started for the opening of the new Oásis Atlântico Salinas Sea resort at Ilha do Sal, Cabo Verde. Located first line from the sea in the prime area of the white sand and blue turquoise sea of Santa Maria beach, the new resort from Oásis Atlântico will create a new standard on holiday vacations in Ilha do Sal (Oasis Atlantico).

ECONOMY

A delegation from China including officials and businesspeople from Macau is due to visit Cape Verde as part of the economic and technical cooperation between the two countries (Macauhub).

Another edition of the “I Love Cabo Verde” Promo Tour began, stopping at several cities in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and the Netherlands. The initiative aims to sell T-shirts promoting Cape Verde, the buyers of two of which will get a third for just one Euro (A Semana).

AGRI

Banana production on the Cape Verdean island of Sao Nicolau is increasing due to rainfall in the last two years and the introduction of organic banana plants, which has a fast rate of reproduction (Macauhub).

Conditions have been set up for the launch of the Kibala agri-industrial project in Kwanza Sul, Angola, Cape Verde’s minister for Infrastructure and the Marine Economy, José Maria Veiga said in Praia (Macauhub).

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CAPE VERDE INVESTMENT

José “Zeca” Duarte, who has served as Cape Verde’s ambassador to France for the past several years, is the new president of state investment and tourism promotion agency Cabo Verde Investimentos, in replacement of Rui Cardoso. Cape Verde’s diplomatic mission in Paris, meanwhile, will be headed by José Brito, who until very recently was Cape Verde’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and is currently one of the Prime Minister’s counselors. The diplomatic shuffle, however, does not end there: former Minister of Labor Madalena Neves will substitute Arnaldo Andrade at the Cape Verdean Embassy in Lisbon, while Mário Matos will head the country’s diplomatic representation in Madrid (A Semana).

OPINION

As Sal and Boa Vista drive the national economy ever higher through tourism growth, it has a perverse destabilizing effect: the population centers that benefit most from the economic growth become relatively more attractive than those that do not. The irony is that while the overall national economy grows, the “have-nots”, like Mosteiros, get left further and further behind. The root cause is the lack of economic linkages and Mosteiros is a classic example (InvestinCV blog).

TOURISM

With an increase of 104%, Cape Verde is now the second most-sought-after destination for French tourists during the European winter season, according to the Association of French Tourist Operators (CETO). Among the destinations with the highest demand from the French, Cape Verde came in second only to Brazil, which grew by 150% (A Semana).

SPLIT SECOND POLL

POLITICS

“Virtuous governance” and a democratic and transparent political system contributed toward helping Cape Verde graduate from the group of Least Developed Countries, according to affirmations made by Cheikh Tidiane Dièye, a development specialist, in the international magazine Passarelles (A Semana).

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INTERNATIONAL

Since arriving in the US, President Pedro Pires has visited Cape Verdean communities in Dorchester, Brockton, Pawtucket, R.I., and SouthCoast. The president’s itinerary also had him scheduled to meet with the governors of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as other politicians, academics and business leaders, according to the Cape Verdean embassy in Washington, D.C., and the consulate general in Boston (Southcoasttoday).

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Cape Verde is being turned into a huge warehouse where luxury cars stolen in Europe are hidden. A French police investigation last week discovered and dismantled an international ring that steals automobiles by manufacturers such as Mercedes, Audi and BMW and ships them in containers to Cape Verde from the French port of Le Havre. The network, with possible connections to the drug trafficking underworld, is made up of French, Polish and Portuguese citizens, as well as a Cape Verdean couple, all of whom have been arrested by French authorities (A Semana).

FOGO

Merchants, restaurant and bar owners and hotel proprietors in Mosteiros are complaining about the lack of business in the region. A Semana Online spoke with some of the business owners in the municipality, who affirm that they have never seen such slow sales.

SANTO ANTAO

The family business Vitral Benal, founded and headquartered in Ribeira Grande, on the island of Santo Antão, will internationalize its commercial activities in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) market. The first steps toward fulfilling this objective have already been taken alongside businessmen from Guinea Bissau, and the company’s first imports and exports are expected to begin soon (A Semana).

DIASPORA

From the 1940s to 1970s, Manuel E. Costa Sr. was recognized as a civil rights activist in New Bedford and a participant in the struggle for Cape Verdean Independence. One of his most lasting gifts to the community was a comprehensive manuscript of Cape Verdean life and culture in the South End. After he died in 1992, his daughter, Jeanne Costa, made it her mission to turn her father’s manuscript into a book, and now, nearly 20 years after his passing, “The Making of the Cape Verdean” by Manuel E. Costa Sr. is complete (Southcoasttoday).

Comment & Discuss

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Partial view of the Praia Shopping Mall developed by Calu & Angela Supermarket chain, nearing completion on Praia’s beach (AW)

ECONOMY

Imports to Cape Verde from Spain’s Canary Islands rose 24.84% in the first quarter of 2011 in relation to the same period last year, resulting in total business dealings on the order of 3.92 million Euros. Among the main items being imported are mechanical devices, vehicles, dairy products and beverages (A Semana).

While Cape Verde’s price controls are well intentioned, the end result is that those who the controls are intended to help are the ones who end up the most hurt by the price controls. In fact, everyone gets hurt – consumers, manufacturers and the government. The ultimate results of price controls are economic inefficiency and financial instability for everyone (InvestinCV).

AVIATION

The Boeing 757 Emigranti, owned by TACV Cabo Verde Airlines, suffered a fire in one of its motors while parked at Praia International Airport with no one on board. The incident took place at approximately 9:00 am Tuesday, and the causes of the fire have yet to be discovered. The aircraft will be grounded for some time as a result of the problem (A Semana).

The new aircraft parking platform at Rabil International Airport on the island of Boa Vista will be operational in the first week of July. Work on the new platform, which began in 2010, is in its final stages, and will increase the parking capacity at the airport from two to five mid-sized airplanes (A Semana).

ENERGY

The wind farm in Monte São Filipe, in the city of Praia, which has an installed potential of 10 megawatts, is slated to begin functioning in August, according to Cape Verde’s director general of energy, Abraão Lopes (A Semana).

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ICT

Cape Verde is the latest country to get its own certification center from the US company Prometric. The center, located at ITech Consulting, offers a series of services, including exam development and delivery and data management (A Semana).

TOURISM

Minister for Tourism, Industry and Energy Humberto Brito, who was speaking at the ceremony to present the new law that regulates gaming and gambling in Cape Verde and establishes a Gaming Inspectorate (IGJ), said this was a moment of “great importance” because Cape Verde could attract many more investors and tourists (Macauhub).

Comment & Discuss

WATER & ENERGY CRISIS

The Praia municipal chamber held a forum on June 8 on the water supply problem in the municipality. The forum was aimed at finding answers to the structural problems related to the water supply that have assailed Praia over the past two weeks (A Semana).

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Prime Minister José Maria Neves said that the government is going all in its power to resolve the grave problems resulting from the continued lack of water over the past two-and-a-half weeks in the nation’s capital. Unable to give a definite date for the restoration of normality, Neves said he hoped the supply of potable water in the city’s network would be regularized as quickly as possible (A Semana).

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ELECTIONS

A fourth presidential candidate, 70-year-old professor Joaquim Jaime Monteiro, who calls himself “a people’s candidate,” submitted his candidacy dossier to the Supreme Court of Justice (A Semana).

Presidential candidate Manuel Inocêncio Sousa departed for Luxembourg and the Netherlands for contacts with Cape Verdeans residing in these two European countries. Before leaving Praia, Sousa presided over the official opening of his campaign headquarters, located in the Praia district of Plateau (A Semana).

DEFENSE & SECURITY

The shell and superstructure of the patrol ship “Guardião” have been concluded and transferred from the MADE shipyard in Mordijk, to ship construction company Damen’s central shipyard in Gorinchen (both in the Netherlands), for the final stages of construction. The modern vessel, which is equipped with the latest technology and is specially adapted to navigate with maximum safety in any weather conditions, will patrol waters under Cape Verdean jurisdiction (A Semana).

SANTO ANTAO

The warm, rough waters of Paúl, on the island of Santo Antão, will be the stage on June 11 and 12 of the Surf and Bodyboard Open. The tournament, a part of the Saint Anthony’s Day celebrations, will welcome Cape Verde’s best surfers for two days of adrenalin (A Semana).

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

The Cape Verdean government has signed a contract with Brazilian company A.R.G. for construction of the ‘Administrative City,’ on the outskirts of Praia, the Ministry of Finance and Planning said. According to the ministry, the project will be funded by Brazil in the amount of US$220 million. The National Statistics Institute, Cape Verde university, the Accounting Tribunal, the Justice ‘campus,’ the West Africa Institute and other state administration buildings will have new facilities built in the ‘Administrative City’ (Macauhub).

ECONOMY

The price of diesel, gasoline and kerosene went up as of midnight Tuesday. According to information provided by the Economic Regulation Agency (ARE), however, the price of butane gas dropped slightly, from 163.5 to 162.3 escudos per kilogram (A Semana).

Efforts in public investments allowed Cape Verde to counter the reduction in foreign investment in 2010 as a result of the world financial crisis, according to the African Development Bank, whose report “Economic Perspectives in Africa” was presented in Lisbon (A Semana).

Ten of the 30 African countries that “most improved” in terms of economic governance in 2010 are from sub-Saharan Africa, notably Rwanda, Cape Verde and Zambia, according to a report published by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) (Macauhub).

FISHERIES

São Vicente’s fishermen are waiting and despairing for the restoration of electricity to the Cova de Inglesa Fishing Complex on the island of São Vicente so that they can resume the purchase of ice at the facility. Because of the lack of ice, the island’s fishing boats have been idle. Those few vessels operating are doing so with major limitations (A Semana).

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TOURISM

The employees of the Djadsal Holiday Club Hotel, on the island of Sal, continue to wait for the green light to return to work. After 140 days on collective leave, the workers hoped to return to their jobs this week, but were met with closed doors (A Semana).

Cape Verde’s Gaming Inspectorate or the central services for supervising gaming and gambling was due to be presented Thursday in Praia by the Ministry for Tourism, Industry and Energy (Macauhub).

WATER & ENERGY CRISIS

Last week proved dark and dirty for many Cape Verdeans. Without water or even electricity, the inhabitants of various corners of the country are having trouble satisfying some of their basic needs or meeting professional commitments (A Semana).

Angolan bank, Banco Africano de Investimentos (BAI), which has a branch in Cape Verde, will, by the end of the year, be a shareholder of Cape Verdean water and electricity company, Electra, Cape Verde’s minister for Finance and Planning said (Macauhub).

Opposition party MpD will propose a parliamentary hearing of Finance Minister Cristina Fontes and water and electricity utility Electra CEO Antão Fortes to the National Assembly’s Specialized Finance and Budget Commission. The MpD wants the two to explain the current situation at state-held Electra to Cape Verdeans (A Semana).

When city resident Julio Rodrigues went back to his native island of Cape Verde in 2000, he saw the spotty electricity supply and lack of water and was determined to do something about it. More than a decade later, Rodrigues, 50, is close to doing just that, and in the process could bring part of the renewable energy boom to Brockton. Rodrigues is incorporating Cape Verde Wind LLC this month, a Brockton-based company that is brokering a deal to bring New England-made wind turbines to the island nation of Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa (Entreprisenews).

CULTURE

Carmen Souza arrived in Cape Verde with a label as a fusion singer, a cocktail of sounds in which jazz and Cape Verdean music stand out in the midst of a vast palette of influences. Although somewhat reductionist, this stamp placed on her by the specialized press fits her like a glove (A Semana).

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BOA VISTA

The private company Águas e Energias de Boa Vista (AEB) is now solely responsible for the production and distribution of water and electricity on the island of Boa Vista. The concession contract thus takes effect after a number of delays, while the local delegation of Cape Verdean water and electricity utility Electra closes its doors, leaving some 20 workers, who were not integrated into the personnel structure of AEB, unemployed (A Semana).

FOGO

The Cape Verdean government is going to negotiate the financing of the substitution of the water conduit that runs the length of the Fogo island ring road with the Luxembourg Cooperation Agency. The project, which was elaborated by Italian company SSWS, calls for additional funds of 600 million escudos (A Semana).

SANTO ANTAO

Prime Minister José Maria Neves presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Ponte Sul/Campo Redondo road in the municipality of Porto Novo, Santo Antão. The 17-kilometer road is considered important for accessing the southern portion of the municipality (A Semana).

SAO VICENTE

The new mayor of São Vicente, Augusto Neves, has announced that he will personally head the municipal chamber’s department of Territorial Planning and Urbanism, effectively removing authority in this domain from councilman Benvindo Cruz, considered a protégé of Neves’ predecessor, Isaura Gomes, who resigned this week following a lengthy period of constant absences from office due to health reasons (A Semana).

DIASPORA

The State Pier of New Bedford was a mini-convention center last weekend, with hundreds of people milling about perusing dozens of craft vendors selling Cape Verdean goods or enjoying the island nation’s rich culinary treats in a makeshift food court. Cape Verde’s distinctive musical heritage was also a drawing attraction, with traditional and contemporary bands performing on an outside stage, with New Bedford Harbor in the background (South Coast Today).

ECONOMY

Cape Verde’s National Statistics Institute (INE) signed a cooperation protocol with its Spanish counterpart to boost institutional capacity to produce economic and environmental statistics (Macauhub).

Cape Verde’s water and power distribution company Electra and the country’s flagship airline, TACV are to be privatised following restructuring, Cape Verde’s prime minister said (Macauhub).

The Bank of Cape Verde has raised its economic growth forecast for 2011 to between 5 and 6 percent, or 1 percentage point more than in its previous projection announced in November, 2010 (Macauhub).

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Ms. Valerie Cerra visited Cape Verde during May 18-31, 2011 to conduct discussions on the first review under the Policy Support Instrument (PSI), which was approved by the IMF Executive Board in November 2010. The mission met with Finance Minister Cristina Duarte, Central Bank Governor Carlos Burgo, Parliamentarians and other government officials, and representatives of civil society and the private sector. At the conclusion of the visit, Ms. Cerra made the following statement.

AGRI ETC

Mangoes, limes, pineapples and oranges are some of the fruits that Cape Verdean entrepreneurs hope to begin importing from Guinea Bissau. The announcement came following a meeting in Bissau between businesspeople from both countries, who are currently defining strategies aimed at establishing partnerships to facilitate the sale of Guinea Bissauan agricultural products on the Cape Verdean market (A Semana).

The first phase of the project to re-launch the banana crop on the Cape Verdean island of Santiago has begun and this year a total of 15,000 banana plants are due to be planted (Macauhub).

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FAST FERRY

Cape Verde Fast Ferry CEO Sean D. Pond has been traveling to many of the northern islands in order to negotiate port space and to plan the daily route schedule for Liberdadi.  As is the case in the southern islands CVFF has created strong partnerships with many of the municipalities, Enapor, and Institute Maritimo Portuario (IMP) (CVFF).

FISHERIES

Research vessel Fidtjof Nansen will begin acoustic prospection of small ocean species in Cape Verdean waters, a project that will help assess the quantity of mackerel and frigate tuna in the country’s waters with a relatively high degree of precision (A Semana).

Water and electricity utility Electra cut off the supply of electricity to the Cova de Inglesa Fishing Complex on the island of São Vicente, because of a debt of more than 6 million escudos. Complex director Benvindo Oliveira confirmed the news, but stated that efforts are being made to regularize the situation (A Semana).

REAL ESTATE

Hugely popular on the British market, MRI boasted a £100 million annual turnover before the credit crunch. As well as property development in Spain, MRI marketed villas and apartments in Morocco, Bulgaria and Cape Verde, where the company also arranged furniture supplies. But now MacAnthony, 35, and his former joint chief executives, Michael Liggan and Dominic Pickering, have been accused of ‘theft by swindle and misappropriation of funds’ in a claim filed in Madrid by 60 British and Irish claimants who say they lost more than half a million pounds in undelivered furniture five years ago (Daily Mail).