Atlantico Weekly

Archive for 2012|Yearly archive page

Atlantico Weekly’s Angola Business News

In Angola on April 12, 2012 at 7:39 pm

POLITICS

Angola is ending its military mission to help modernise the army in Guinea Bissau as a result of requests from unnamed “sectors” in the country, Portuguese news agency Lusa quoted Angola’s foreign minister as saying (Reuters Africa).

Angolan rebels have offered a ceasefire and called for peace talks that could herald an end to decades of conflict in the country. The truce offer comes amid unconfirmed reports that Angola’s army has increased its military presence in Cabinda enclave in advance of the elections (Financial Times).

INTERNATIONAL

Angola is negotiating a new credit line with Brazil, the funds of which will be used for infrastructure, energy, and industrial sector projects the Angolan ambassador to Brazil, Nelson Cosme said in Brasilia (Macauhub).

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BUSINESS

L’Oreal SA expects the middle class in Angola and Cameroon to expand sufficiently over the next three years to warrant setting up operations there (Bloomberg).

The hospital business in Portugal is one of the targets of Angolan oil company Sonangol, at a time when the financial crisis in Portugal is attracting Angolan, Brazilian and Chinese investors to study acquisitions and privatisations, according to the Africa Monitor newsletter (Macauhub).

AVIATION

Sonair, airline unit of Sonangol EP, will acquire a “minimum” of 51 percent of STP Air of the islands of Sao Tome and Principe, Agencia Angola Press reported, citing Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada of Sao Tome and Principe (Bloomberg).

BANKING

Standard Bank Group plans to as much as quadruple its branch network in Angola by the end of this year, as it targets explosive growth in the oil-rich nation, the head of its Angolan unit said. Pedro Pinto Coelho also told Reuters in an interview that Africa’s biggest bank will not rule out an acquisition in Angola, where it is aiming for up to 70 branches in as little as three years (News24).

Angolan bank Banco BIC, which recently bought nationalised Portuguese bank Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) via BIC Portugal, plans to put forward a proposal to the Portuguese government to acquire BPN Brasil, said shareholder and chairman of the bank, Fernando Teles (Macauhub).

CULTURE

She is bold, she is bright, she is beautiful and she is taking Angola by storm. Not bad for a transsexual in a Catholic African country where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by hard labour. Born in Luanda as Teca Miguel Garcia, singer and dancer Titica adopted her female persona four years ago following a breast enhancement operation in Brazil (BBC).

Cape Verde Politics & Regional News

In Cape Verde on April 5, 2012 at 7:34 pm

POLITICS

President Jorge Carlos Fonseca visited Dakar, Senegal, as that country’s new president was sworn in. Mr Fonseca also met the large local Capeverdean community in the presence of the Ambassador to Senegal, Francisco Veiga (Facebook).

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INTERNATIONAL

The program “Reinforcement of Energy Production, Transportation and Distribution Capacity on six Cape Verdean islands,” co-financed by the Cape Verdean government and by the African Development Bank, received financial reinforcement of 6 billion escudos from Japan, which signed a loan agreement with Cape Verde’s Ministry of Foreign Relations (A Semana).

DIASPORA

Well known Rotterdam hairdresser Carlos Ramos was nominated out of thousands of competing colleagues for the Dutch Coiffure Awards 2012. The Awards ceremony will take place on May13th (Coiffure Awards, in Dutch). Being nominated is already a great victory, a happy Carlos told Atlantico Weekly.

A 29-year-old man is facing a murder charge in connection with a Brockton man gunned down on a porch in 2011. Herico Andrade was arraigned on one count of the murder of Jose Lobo,23, in Brockton District Court (Entreprise News).

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Read The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands, updated recently.

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

BOAVISTA

The third largest of 10 islands off the west coast of Africa, Boa Vista is very much untapped and undeveloped, although for just how long remains to be seen. By 2018, more than one million visitors are expected to descend on the island every year, with Cape Verde being labelled in some quarters as the new Canary Islands or Caribbean. The infrastructure is not in place to accommodate such an influx yet, but the natural beauty of the vast sandy beaches and turquoise-blue sea make it easy to see why the popularity of Boa Vista is increasing (Manchester Evening News).
SANTO ANTAO

The National Civil Protection Service (SNPC) tested the response capacity of the Municipal Civil Protection Services of the three municipalities on the island of Santo Antão. The exercise was denominated “Santo Antão 12” (A Semana).

Santo Antão Regional Jail, currently located in the town of Ponta do Sol in the municipality of Ribeira Grande, will be relocated to the sparsely habited region of Aguada de Janela, in the municipality of Paúl (A Semana).

Cape Verde Business & Economy News

In Cape Verde on April 5, 2012 at 7:34 pm

ECONOMY

Portuguese development financing company Sofid has six financing projects in the work for Cape Verde, a market in which it intends to enter the controlled-cost housing, parking, tourism and agriculture sectors. The company’s investment portfolio in the country involves some five million Euros (A Semana).

The vessel Vicente, owned by the Tuninha -Transportes Marítimos SA company, will start operating on the São Vicente/ Santo Antão route from next week in order to fill up the gap left by the Sal Rei vessel that now only operates on Sundays on that route (AW/A Semana).

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

Atlantico Weekly is looking ahead!

Check out our Cape Verde in 2030 with a realistic glimpse of where and how Cape Verde will look like in the next decades …!

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of a Coladera villa, part of the Ponte Bicuda project for Santiago (source).

BUSINESS

The Business Initiative Directive (BID) has highlighted Boa Vista-based business Oásis in its “gold” category, in which some 77 companies throughout the world have been classified, including the firm that built the world’s tallest building. The associates of the Cape Verdean company admitted their “surprise” at the distinction, and affirmed their hope to consolidate their business in Cape Verde and expand internationally (A Semana).

The process to certify some traditional products in Cape Verde such as cheese, rum, wine, and coffee from Fogo Island, are currently underway, the minister for Rural Development, Eva Ortet said (Macauhub).

AGRI ETC.

Both farmers and Minister of Rural Development Eva Ortet confirmed the existence of an unknown disease attacking banana and papaya tress on the island of Santiago. The area of greatest concern is Ribeira dos Picos Engenhos, in the municipality of Santa Cruz (A Semana).

BANKING & FINANCE

The Cape Verde Stock Exchange has suspended the registry of Cape Verdean commercial bank Banco Caboverdiano de Negócios (BCN) as an operator at the institution. The Cape Verde Stock Exchange did not specify the reasons that led it to adopt the drastic measure, but rumors have long been circulating about the bank’s alleged lack of liquidity (A Semana).

Angolan bank Banco BIC is considering acquiring BPN IFI, a unit of the former Portuguese bank, Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) in Cape Verde. Cape Verde was one of the countries in which Banco BIC planned to be present and  regardless of the acquisition of the Cape Verdean bank BIC is already preparing a request for a license to operate in the market through an international financial institution (IFI) (Macauhub).

FISHERIES

Spain plans to fund projects in the fishing sector in Cape Verde and the Spanish council of ministers has already approved a loan of 12.8 million euros. The loan will pay for two projects to design and build facilities for processing, freezing and canning fish, and the coordination centres for these activities, which will be based in Mindelo on the island of São Vicente, will also provide support to Spanish companies operating in Cape Verde (Macauhub).

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TELECOMS

The Prime Minister of Cape Verde, Jose Maria Neves, said the government will negotiate a new concession agreement with Portugal Telecom and CV Telecom at a meeting in Lisbon on 23 April. He told a press conference that he will meet that day with the board of directors of Portugal Telecom, ahead of CV Telecom’s general meeting at the end of the month. Portugal Telecom owns 40 percent of CV Telecom. Neves denied that the negotiation of a new contract has anything to do with plans for Angolan investment in CV Telecom’s main rival, T + (Telecom Paper).

TOURISM

“In terms of medium-haul destinations, the star is Cape Verde, if we have to choose just one,” according to the president of the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (APAVT), Pedro Costa Ferreira, in an interview with website PressTur about the most sought-after destinations on the part of Portuguese tourists (A Semana).

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign. For instance with Helen Hutchings and Steve Cooling of Blu bar, Santa Maria…!

Atlantico Weekly’s Angola Business News

In Angola on April 5, 2012 at 7:33 pm

POLITICS

Now vying to be “Africa’s Dubai”, Luanda and its building boom reflect the progress made since rebel group UNITA, decapitated by the death in battle of its leader Jonas Savimbi, signed an April 4, 2002 peace accord with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and his victorious ruling MPLA party. But many citizens say however they feel left out of the post-war economic boom that has elevated Angola to Africa’s No. 2 oil producer behind Nigeria. They accuse Dos Santos’ government of leaving the poor behind while a ruling elite reaps the spoils of peace (Reuters).

There may be much that is shiny and new in Angola, but 10 years after the end of the war many ghosts remain, as Louise Redvers reports for BBC Focus on Africa magazine. It is a milestone that at one time few would have thought possible. On 4 April, Angola marks a decade since the end of the 27-year civil war which devastated the country, claiming countless lives and displacing millions. How times have changed. Today Angola can now boast of a booming economy – forecast to grow 12% this year – and a growing regional and international diplomatic profile (BBC).

With his thin-rimmed spectacles and philosophy degree, MCK belies the image of a streetwise rapper, but his latest album bears a message that is authentically tough. Released in January, “Proibido Ouvir Isto” (Forbidden to Hear This), assails a host of national ills, from the corruption of Angola’s elite to the squalor of its fetid musseques (slums) (The Economist).

President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos probably won’t lose power in Africa’s second-biggest crude producer, as oil income strengthens his rule, said former Prime Minister Marcolino Moco, a member of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola. “It’s a dictatorship of oil that we have,” Moco told reporters today in Johannesburg, in neighboring South Africa. “The president dominates completely. It’s not a one-party state; it’s a one-person state” (Bloomberg).

Elias Isaac, country director in Angola for the independent Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, Marcolino Moco, a member of Angola’s ruling MPLA who is nonetheless a sharp critic of long-time President Eduardo dos Santos, and  of the opposition Unita party held a news conference in neighbouring South Africa to discuss their concerns about the state of democracy in the southern African nation (News24).

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SPLIT SECOND POLL

ECONOMY

Angola needs to invest US$20 billion in telecommunications, transport, energy, and water over the next decade in order to catch up with the level of infrastructure in other developing countries, according to a comparative study from the World Bank published in Washington (Macauhub).

Angola’s foreign-currency reserves dropped to $26.6 billion in February from $27.1 billion in the previous month, the Luanda-based central bank said (Bloomberg).

Angolans can now build infrastructure and farm crops more safely, as more than 870 million square metres of land have been cleared of mines since 2008, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The UNDP has contributed to local efforts by training more than 1,000 demining specialists at the National Demining Institute in recent years (Defence Web).

AVIATION

Boeing Co said Angola carrier TAAG Linhas Aereas de Angola has ordered three 777-300ER airplanes, a deal worth $895 million at list prices (Reuters).

At least eight airports will be well equipped and modernized in Angola this year.  The director of Infrastructure of the National Company for the Exploration of Airports and Air Navigation (ENANA), Nataniel Domingos, stated that the modernization of each facility includes the construction or repair of aircraft movement areas, including runways and parking (Prensa Latina).

OIL & GAS

Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol EP wants to explore for oil in Cuba through a joint venture with Cobalt International Energy Inc. (CIE). Manuel Vicente, Angola’s minister for economic coordination and former Sonangol chairman, traveled to the Caribbean island last week to discuss Sonangol’s access to the country’s oil sector (Bloomberg).

A large shipyard intended to provide support to oil companies operating in the seas off Angola is currently under construction in the Porto Amboim. Called Porto Amboim Estaleiros Navais (Paenal) the shipyard started out in 2007 as a subsidiary of state group Sonangol, with a 40 percent stake, and its foreign partners are Singapore’s SBW Shipyard, and its South Korean counterpart Daewoo Shipyards, each with a 30 percent stake (Macauhub).

Cape Verde Politics & Regional News

In Cape Verde on March 29, 2012 at 1:43 pm

POLITICS

The Minister of Higher Learning, Science and Innovation, António Correia e Silva, began a four-day visit to the Canary Islands in order to hold discussions with officials from the Spanish autonomous region regarding the installation in Cape Verde of a laboratory aimed at advanced studies on tropical diseases (A Semana).

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INTERNATIONAL

Angola’s Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries will grant approximately 7,500 hectares of land to Cape Verde for agricultural production and farming, according to an announcement by Cape Verdean Minister of Rural Development Eva Ortet (A Semana).

The Cape Verdean government intends to raise 15 billion escudos (US$ 1 = 83 Cape Verdean Escudos) with which to finance about 4,000 cultural projects in the country over 10 years. This indication was given in Brussels by the Cape Verdean Minister of Culture, Mario Lucio Sousa de Mendes, while presenting a budget proposal for the project to the European parliament (Afrique en Ligne).

China is stepping up its aid to Cape Verde. It will be sending eight medical specialists to Praia’s Agostinho Neto Hospital, 20 vehicles for use by the Cape Verde government as well as an education centre for Sal Island (AW/A Semana).

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Read The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands, updated recently.

SAL

Pedra de Lume, on the island of Sal, was officially made a National Heritage Site afternoon in a ceremony presided over by Minister of Culture Mário Lúcio Sousa that represented the fulfillment of a long-standing dream on the part of the local population (A Semana).

SANTIAGO

Praia City Hall is planning a new parking system for the capital’s historic Plato district. With the assistance of Lisbon City Hall parking metres will be acquired and the July 5th Park will see the construction of a 250-car parking garage (AW/A Semana).

SANTO ANTAO

By the end of this year, farmers in Casa de Meio, a village in the municipality of Porto Novo (Santo Antão), will benefit from a program aimed at powering local water wells using solar panels in order to reduce irrigation water costs in the community (A Semana).

A new rural solar photovoltaic (PV) micro-grid has been commissioned on the island of Santo Antão (Cabo Verde) financed under the ACP-EU Energy Facility programme and led by local private water company Aguas de Porto Novo, in consortium with the local municipality and other entities. An individual energy allowance scheme has been rolled out to provide 60 homes in a village with power from the array (Renewable Energy Magazine).

SAO VICENTE

Two taxi drivers were the victims of robbery and assault over the weekend in Mindelo (A Semana).

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

Cape Verde Business & Economy News

In Cape Verde on March 29, 2012 at 1:41 pm

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of the Europa Park touristic and real estate development for Santa Maria, on Sal Island (more info & pics, in Portuguese).

ECONOMY

Expomar, Cape Verde’s first fair about sea-related business activities will have 40 exhibitors from the islands of São Vicente, Santo Antão, Santiago and São Nicolau and will take up 65 stands in a pavilion at the International Cape Verde Fair (FIC) (Macauhub).

Cape Verde is among the countries that received a higher level of gold exports from Portugal in 2011. Gold imports from that EU country grew by 140% according to INE, the national statistics bureau of Cape Verde (AW/A Semana).

Angola top entrepreneur Isabel dos Santos, daughter of President dos Santos, has started investing in Cape Verde. Dos Santos, the fifth richest woman of Africa, is said to participate strongly in the T+ telecoms company and planning investments in the tourist and real estate sectors (AW/A Semana).

AVIATION

Workers of private airline Halcyonair are threatening a 5-day general strike from April 5th in response to overdue salaries. The strike will affect all the company’s services at Praia’s Nelson Mandela’s International Airport (AW/A Semana).

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FISHERIES

Some 100 metric tons of soldier shrimp can be caught every year on the islands of Boa Vista and Maio, according to Oksana Tariche, the coordinator of PROACTIVA II, a project that is assessing the shrimp potential in Cape Verdean waters (A Semana).

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

Atlantico Weekly is looking ahead!

Check out our Cape Verde in 2030 with a realistic glimpse of where and how Cape Verde will look like in the next decades …!

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign. For instance with Emanuel Spencer of SCI, Cape Verde’s first multinational!

PORTS & LOGISTICS

Cape Verdean port management company Enapor – Portos de Cabo Verde over the next 10 months plans to introduce the Single Port Window (Janela Única Portuária – Jupii) system, a project that was launched at the Enapor Mindelo facilities (Macauhub).

TOURISM

The number of hotels and other lodging facilities in Cape Verde grew by almost 10% to 195 entities in 2011, according to INE, the national statistics bureau of Cape Verde. Accommodation grew to almost 8000 rooms with over 14.000 beds last year. In numbers of facilities Santiago is leading with 22 %, followed by Sao Vicente with 16% and Santo Antao with over 14% of total units. In numbers of beds however Sal Island remains leading with over 44% of the total and Boavista in second place with over 31% of all beds. Employment in the hotel branch grew by no less than 27,6% in 2011 to almost 5200 staff. The complete report can be found here (pdf, in Portuguese).

The Cape Verde government has granted 60-year rights for the use of a large land area oo Sao Vicente to the Belgian Talboom Group for the development of a high class tourist resort. The 8,43 hectare project will be at Joao d’Evora Bay (AW/EdI).

UTILITIES

“Electra does not have the capacity to manipulate any price. Our electricity and water invoicing model is transparent.” This was the reaction of water and electricity utility Electra’s CEO, Alexandre Fortes, to accusations leveled by consumer defense association ADECO, which claimed that the company uses a computer program known as ELAG to increase the amounts on its bills and jeopardize consumers (A Semana).

A number of individuals identifying themselves as employees of water and electricity utility Electra are visiting customers’ homes, threatening to cut off their energy supply and providing false information about supposed debts owed to the company. The phony workers, according to Electra, also “levy fines” and collect bill payments, jeopardizing the company’s image (A Semana).

Atlantico Weekly’s Angola Business News

In Angola on March 29, 2012 at 1:39 pm

POLITICS

An Angolan human rights group said it is launching a campaign for the right to protest amid a state crackdown on demonstrations against long-ruling President Jose Eduardo dos Santos (News24).

INTERNATIONAL

The International Monetary Fund approved the release of a final loan disbursement to Angola under the country’s $1.4 billion loan agreement made in 2009. The IMF said it would immediately disburse $132.9 million to Angolan authorities and waived performance targets linked to international reserves and central bank credit (Reuters).

The International Monetary Fund should withhold a final loan payment of $130 million to Angola because of a “discrepancy” in income from oil sales, Human Rights Watch said (Bloomberg).

Angola’s $500m plan to build a bauxite mine and deepwater port in Guinea-Bissau has stalled, with almost no work done since the project was officially inaugurated in July last year. The project, first signalled by Angola in 2008 after it won rights to a mining concession in the southeastern Boe region, would be the single biggest foreign investment in Guinea-Bissau, an impoverished country plagued by turmoil since independence and whose main export is cashew nuts (BusinessDay).

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DEFENSE & SECURITY

Many white South Africans conscripted to fight for the apartheid military in Angola still struggle to swallow the bitter pill that their battle landed on the wrong side of history. Known here as the Border War, apartheid South Africa sent troops to support Angola’s Unita rebels, backed by the US against the then-Marxist MPLA government and its Cuban allies (News24).

Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer said it booked $180 million in orders for its Super Tucano light attack fighters for border monitoring and counter-insurgency missions in Burkina Faso, Angola and Mauritania. The Angola Air Force has ordered six Super Tucanos, the first three of which will be delivered this year (Reuters).

ECONOMY

Angola’s central bank has left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 10.25 percent for the second straight month, the bank said after a meeting of its monetary policy committee (Reuters).

Next month Angola commemorates the 10th anniversary of the end of its three-decade civil war. The country has come a long way since 2002, when the death of rebel leader Jonas Savimbi finally silenced the guns that had pounded for so long in a conflict that began as a liberation struggle against the Portuguese and evolved into a proxy African cold war, involving both the ANC and the South African Defence Force. Thanks to oil, which accounts for about 90% of Angola’s exports, the economy has grown at a stellar rate, at times outstripping China. This year its gross domestic product is forecast to swell by 12% (Mail & Guardian).

AVIATION

Four private airlines may soon start operating in Angola after completing the process to become an operator with the National Civil Aviation Institute (INAVIC), an official from the civil aviation regulator said. Air Two, Trans-World, Omni Aviation and SJL airlines are now waiting for conclusion of their application process in order to receive official certification (Macauhub).

The Dutch airline company KLM made the inaugural flight between the cities of Luanda and Amsterdam (Netherlands) with an Airbus 330-200, leaving the 4 de Fevereiro International Airport early in the evening (AllAfrica).

BANKING

The Portuguese unit of Angola’s Banco BIC will buy nationalised lender Banco Portugues de Negocios (BPN) after the European Union approved the Portuguese bank’s restructuring, opening the way for completion of the agreed deal (Reuters).

An investment bank owned by Portuguese state banking group Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) and Angola’s Sonangol is due to start operating in Angola the second half of this year, the Portuguese Finance Minister said in Luanda (Macauhub).

OIL & GAS

Angola plans to cut daily crude exports by 5 percent in May from next month, according to a final loading program obtained by Bloomberg News. The west African nation would export 55 cargoes amounting to 1.7 million barrels a day, compared with 56 cargoes totaling 1.79 million in April, the final schedules showed.

PORTS & LOGISTICS

The modernisation and enlargement of Lobito Port will be worth 1.2 billion dollars acoording to the port’s CEO, Anapaz de Jesus Neto. The money will be used for the construction of a terminal for unloading minerals cargo. The enlargement of the quay that will enable to receive 12 ships is also part of the work. Currently, Lobito Port receives only eight ships. The investment also comprises the construction of a dry port and other port related services. With this investment it will be possible to handle 11 million tonnes of cargo per year (ABN/Angop).

TELECOMS

Brazilian company Telebras and Angola Cables signed an agreement to lay an undersea cable between the Brazilian city of Fortaleza and the Angolan capital, Luanda, which may start operating in the first half of 2014 (Macauhub).

Cape Verde Politics & Regional News

In Cape Verde on March 22, 2012 at 10:19 pm

POLITICS

At the international forum on public safety currently taking place in Praia, President Jorge Carlos Fonseca affirmed that the solution to the country’s current problems “is not making laws and more laws,” because “Cape Verde, generally speaking, has good laws” (A Semana).

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INTERNATIONAL

Angola and Cape Verde have signed a protocol to facilitate the issuance of visas for short and long trip for their citizens, as well as accord recognition for each other’s driver’s licences (Afrique en Ligne).

A 70-page Cape Verde shadow report provided the U.N. Human Rights Committee shows key recommendations in curbing corporal punishment and sexual abuse. It called for the Cape Verdean government to establish child- and gender-sensitive mechanisms for the mandatory reporting and investigation of such cases. The report also called on the government to integrate the best-interest-of-the-child principle in those mechanisms (Newscenter).

DEFENSE & SECURITY

The Angolan minister of Interior, Sebastiao Martins ended his official visit to the Republic of Cape Verde, having revived bilateral cooperation mainly with regard to security and public order as well as staff training (AllAfrica).

SANTIAGO

Water Resources Group Ltd announced that site preparation has commenced in Cape Verde in support of the Water Offtake Agreement between the Municipality of Santa Catarina and Blue Aquifer LDA, WRG’s 49% owned joint venture company (4 Traders).

The Plateau fruit and vegetable market in Praia is overflowing with produce, all of which is much less expensive than usual thanks to this year’s plentiful rains. Vendors are thankful, but as thermometers in the city begin to rise, they have nowhere to conserve it and have begun to incur losses (A Semana).

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Read The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands, updated recently.

Cape Verde Business & Economy News

In Cape Verde on March 22, 2012 at 10:19 pm

ECONOMY

Prime Minister José Maria Neves admits that “major restructuring” is needed at TACV Cabo Verde Airlines so that the country’s flagship carrier can be made attractive for privatization. The same will have to take place at water and electricity utility Electra in order to it to provide a “good service to the country.” These two major challenges were voiced on the day in which the government presiding over Cape Verde’s eighth legislature marked the first anniversary of its swearing in, on March 21 (A Semana).

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PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of the Mussolini Complex for Ribeira Grande, Santo Antao. The complex consists of an appartment complex and the rebuilding of a historic building, named after the former owner´s first name (more).

AVIATION

Chief Executive Officer of private airline Halcyonair, Jorge Spencer Lima, says the Cape Verde aviation sector is “technically bankrupt.” Spencer Lima’s proposal includes the constitution of a holding company, in which current Cape Verdean flagship airline TACV Cabo Verde Airlines would operate all long-haul international flights, Halcyonair domestic and regional flights, and Cabo Verde Express domestic charter flights (A Semana).

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

Atlantico Weekly is looking ahead!

Check out our Cape Verde in 2030 with a realistic glimpse of where and how Cape Verde will look like in the next decades …!

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign. For instance with Helen Hutchings and Steve Cooling of Blu bar, Santa Maria…!

TOURISM

The island of Santiago has gained a new hotel, the Hotel Cachoeira Tarrafal, located along the shore of Tarrafal bay and featuring 27 double rooms and suites (A Semana).

Another hot mid-haul market, Cape Verde entered the top ten holiday destinations for the first time. With an increase in hotels, charter flights and package holidays over the last few years, they have become a strong rival to the Canaries for those looking for a winter sun retreat (Bradenton).

Atlantico Weekly´s Angola Business News

In Angola on March 22, 2012 at 10:17 pm

POLITICS

An Angolan weekly whose computers were seized by police after it lampooned President Jose Eduardo dos Santos will appear this weekend and carry on fighting for democracy, its chief said. “The current government in Angola wants to muzzle our weekly by seizing our equipment,” Fernando Puati, the managing director of Folha 8, told AFP in a telephone interview.

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ECONOMY

Angola will start taxing informal traders this year to boost income from outside the oil industry, Jornal de Angola reported, citing Finance Minister Carlos Alberto Lopes. A “greater percentage” of the economy in sub-SaharanAfrica’s second-biggest oil producer is informal and traders must formalize some of their activities to enable the government to collect taxes, the Luanda-based newspaper said (Bloomberg).

OIL & GAS

Angola will export 57 crude cargoes in May, including the newest Pazflor grade, according to loading programs obtained by Bloomberg News. The west African nation plans to export one more consignment in May than the 56 scheduled to load in April. Loading programs are monthly plans of crude shipments compiled by field operators to allow buyers and sellers to plan their supply and trading activities.

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

Cape Verde Politics & Regional News

In Cape Verde on March 15, 2012 at 8:41 pm

POLITICS

President Jorge Carlos Fonseca has been invited by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to participate in the High Level Segment of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, known as Rio+20 (A Semana).

Negotiations within the framework of the Partnership for Mobility between Cape Verde and the European Union have been concluded after two years of discussions, with Cape Verde managing to make the long-awaited visa facilitation accord a reality. In order for the accord to be accepted by the EU, Cape Verde had to accept the repatriation of Cape Verdean citizens living illegally in the European Community space (A Semana).

SPLIT SECOND POLL

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INTERNATIONAL

Finance Minister, Cristina Duarte began a four-day visit to China during which she is scheduled to meet with her Chinese counterpart Xie Xuren as well as with officials from the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministries. Mrs Duarte will also visit Singapore and Japan (AW).

Dutch border police have uncovered a cocaine smuggling route between Peru and the Netherlands. The investigation focuses on two airline employees whose job it was to get the cocaine past customs. The drugs were hidden in the suitcases of drug couriers. So far, 11 suspects have been arrested: eight Dutchmen, two people of ‘no fixed abode’ and one person from the Cape Verde Islands (Focus).

DEFENSE & SECURITY

Brazil’s Minister of Defence has said that his government will donate Bandeirante aircraft to Cape Verde for maritime patrol duties, as it strengthens defence cooperation with the archipelago (Defenseweb).

Military and civilian maritime professionals from West Africa, Europe, and the United States finalized a challenging training agenda for exercise Saharan Express 2012, which is to be executed later this spring off the coast of Cape Verde (Defpro).

CULTURE

The winners in the 23 categories in the 2012 edition of the Cabo Verde Music Awards (CVMA) all shared feelings of “joy and responsibility” for the recognition of their work. The night’s big winner was Mirri Lobo, who took home four prizes, but the high point was the message aging singer Bana delivered to the public (A Semana).

SAL

The National Assembly has approved a request undersigned by 1,132 citizens calling for the region of Santa Maria on Sal Island, to be elevated to the category of municipality. The local population is jubilant, but this is only the beginning of a process that will culminate with the approval of a law instituting the new municipality on the island (A Semana).

SANTO ANTAO

32-year-old Alberto Carlos Monteiro, better known as Calú d’António de Batcha, died in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 11, after being hit by a pickup truck on the newly-opened Ribeira da Torre road in Ribeira Grande, on the island of Santo Antão (A Semana).

SAO VICENTE

A Portuguese company will salvage the tug Leopard stranded on Gale beach in Mindelo, as well as the Mar Azul vessel, which sunk in the Porto Grande in 2010 (AW).

Cape Verde Business & Economy News

In Cape Verde on March 15, 2012 at 8:40 pm

ECONOMY

Inflation dropped by 0.5 % to 2,5 % for the month of February 2012. For the full report by INE including figures for the various islands check here (Pdf, in Portuguese).

Expansion and modernization of the Port of Praia is expected to be completed in May 2013 under a project funded by a 200 million-euro line of credit provided by Portugal. Portuguese construction consortium Somague/MSF/Etermar will carry out the second phase of work at a cost of 72 million euros (Dredging Today).

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Construction of Cape Verde’s National Stadium in Praia.

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AVIATION

One of TACV Cabo Verde Airlines’ ATR aircrafts, which was carrying out a regularly scheduled flight between Praia and Sal, was forced to return to Praia International Airport because of a technical problem, according to information from the company’s press office (A Semana).

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Read The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands, updated recently.

SPLIT SECOND POLL

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

Atlantico Weekly is looking ahead!

Check out our Cape Verde in 2030 with a realistic glimpse of how Cape Verde will look like in the next decades …!

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign. For instance with Paulino Dias of PD Consult…

TELECOMS

Portugal Telecom and CV Telecom launched a service aimed at the Cape Verde diaspora in Portugal, estimated at around 87,000 people, called Da $aldo Internacional. The service enables any TMN client in Portugal to make top-ups to people in Cabo Verde who are customers of CVMovel. Top-ups sent from CVMovel to TMN customers in Portugal will also launch soon. The top-ups can be made at any ATM or PayShop (Telecom Paper).

TOURISM

Britons are the largest group among Cape Verde’s tourists with 19%. Germans and Italians are in second and third place. For a full statistical report on Cape Verde’s tourists in 2011 check the INE site (Pdf, in Portuguese).

SPLIT SECOND POLL

Atlantico Weekly’s Angola Business News

In Angola on March 15, 2012 at 8:38 pm

POLITICS

A group of youth student protesters joined by a few opposition party members gathered on the streets on the March 10 to express their dissatisfaction with the electoral process and the dictatorial ruling of president Jose Eduardo dos Santos. The protestors were brutalised by a well-organized group of militias (News24).

Angolan police have seized the computers of the weekly Folha 8, after the paper published a photo montage lampooning President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the Committee to Protect Journalists said (IOL).

Angolan anti-graft campaigner Rafael Marques testified to prosecutors investigating his claims that seven generals committed crimes against humanity in the country’s diamond fields. Marques, also an author, has accused the generals of being behind torture and killings committed by soldiers as well as by private security forces hired to protect diamond concessions in the northeastern Lundas region. He has singled out the Cuango Mining Society, a consortium that includes a company called Lumanhe, in which he says the generals have a stake (AFP).

Angola’s minister of Justice, Guilhermina Prata, said that the adoption of the Law on Domestic Violence in Angola results from the commitment shown by political power to tackle the social issues, especially involving women and children (AllAfrica).

Angola’s opposition Unita has been dealt a blow by the defection by a top member to form another party. Mr Abel Chivukuvuku, 54, formally quit to launch his Broad Convergence of Angolan Salvation (CASA) party. He declared his candidacy for the presidency in the September election, saying the poll would mark the opening of a “new page” in Angolan politics (Africa Review).

ECONOMY

President José Eduardo dos Santos, signed four Presidential Decrees ensuring the  support for entrepreneurs and creating  conditions for a greater participation of the private sector in the national economy. A note issued by the Civil Office of the President of the Republic, mentions the Presidential Decrees approving Law No. 30/11 of September 13 on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s), the Programme of Support for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the Programme of Support to Small Business (PROAPEN) and the establishing of the Single Counter of Entrepreneurs (BUE) (AW).

Angola plans to invest $1,8bn to help create small and medium-sized businesses, develop existing ones and reduce the economy’s dependence on the state, the state-owned daily newspaper Jornal de Angola said (BusinessDay).

INTERNATIONAL

At a ceremony in Namibia government ministers from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe put their official seal on a cross-border treaty set to combine 36 nature preserves and surrounding areas (Washington Post).

Angolan Foreign Minister Georges Chicoti’s visit to London in late February allowed the minister to present a vivid picture of how his government, ten years after the civil war, likes to see its place in the world. His address pointed to an Angola that is ready to use its financial and military might to assert itself beyond its own borders (AllAfrica).

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BUSINESS

106-year-old Sporting Lisbon soccer club is looking for an investor to ensure it has enough funds to make it through this season and next, said Godinho Lopes, who traveled to the oil-producing former Portuguese colony of Angola this year (Bloomberg).

SAP AG, the biggest maker of enterprise-management software, will open an office in Angola this year as it expands its network in Africa, where it plans to double sales of its small-business offering (Bloomberg).

The Entrepreneurial Support Centre of the Angola’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CAE), Unicarga and Prodiaman Services have been awarded the Gold Quality Prize of the  international organisation Initiative Directions in Geneva, in recognition of their services (ANGOP).

BANKING

Finibanco Angola, a Portuguese and Angolan owned bank opened its first branch in the city of Lobito, in Benguela province (AW).

OIL

Sonangol is in talks to buy a direct stake in Portugal’s Galp Energia , which holds interests in four oil blocks and a gas export project offshore Angola. Sonangol is negotiating to buy half of Italian group Eni’s 33.3 percent stake in Galp, board member Sebastiao Gaspar Martins told Reuters.

Offshore vessels provider Tidewater Inc said Sonatide, its partnership with Angola’s state oil company, will not take up new charters or extend existing ones in the country until the two parties resolve ongoing joint venture talks. Tidewater said its venture agreement with Angola’s Sonangol expires on March 31, but Sonangol has put forth additional and modified terms to the partnership contract (Reuters).

Angola may hold a new oil-bidding round next year, a senior official at state-owned oil company Sonangol EP said. “We haven’t decided yet on the areas on offer,” Gaspar Martins, an executive board member at Sonangol, told reporters at a conference in Kuwait. Some may be onshore, some deepwater, he said (Bloomberg).

Cape Verde Politics & Regional News

In Cape Verde on March 8, 2012 at 7:27 pm

POLITICS

Minister for Infrastructure and Maritime Resources José Maria Veiga will leave the government next week in order to run for Mayor of Santa Catarina in this years local elections. According to A Semana newspaper, his most likely replacement in the government will be Franklin Spencer, the current director of ENAPOR, Cape Verde’s port authority (AW).

Indeed, Africa has had her fair share of revolutionaries – from Sankara to Nkrumah to Mandela – many of them espousing ideals of freedom and justice. One leader that is hardly talked about is Amilcar Cabral. Yet his legacy is very important for contemporary Africa (BusinessDay Online).

President Jorge Carlos Fonseca visited the remote towns of Tarrafal de Monte Trigo and Monte Trigo on Santo Antao’s south coast last week and H.E. arrived in a most original way. Cape Verde’s brandnew patrol boat Guardiao took Mr Fonseca and his staff from Mindelo to Santo Antao and the president was helped ashore in a smaller craft (AW).

INTERNATIONAL

Cape Verde is fashionable! After AMD’s new computer chip named Cape Verde, now British fashion brand Next have launched their highly anticipated Summer 2012 fashion collection. For those favouring the tropical motif trend, women’s dresses and tops in bright prints against muted khakis make up the Cape Verde collection (Market Watch). The collection can be found here.

DEFENSE & SECURITY

Cape Verdean military personnel participated last weekend in an exercise alongside the French infantry. The tests were carried out at the Morro Branco Military Instruction Center on the island of São Vicente (A Semana).

CULTURE

The new edition of the Cabo Verde Music Awards is on Saturday night March 10th. For more info click here. Among those participating are big names such as Lura, Beto Dias, Johnny Ramos, Gil Semedo, Mirri Lobo and Dina Medina. You can also watch the show live here.

Lura bringing her unique fusion of music to İstanbul. The 37-year-old singer is now set to astound Turkish audiences when she takes to the stage this weekend at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall (CRRKS) in İstanbul with a selection of her most beautiful songs. Ahead of her anticipated concert on Friday night at the CRRKS, Lura speaks to Today’s Zaman about her career and her music.

DIASPORA

Community members from all walks of life came out to support the Oak Grove Cape Verdean Cultural Center’s Spring Fling Dinner and Dance on March 2 at the Dudley L. Brown VFW in Onset. “The whole community came out, and I’m not talking about just the Cape Verdean community, the [whole] town community,” said Donna Barros, treasurer for the Cultural Center (Wareham).

Santo Antão-born model Zuleica Veríssimo was elected “People’s Lady of Madrid” and “Lady of Madrid” on Friday, March 2. In addition to a monetary prize, the new “Lady of Madrid” (a sort of Miss Madrid) will participate, in the coming months, in a new beauty contest in which the next “Lady of Spain” will be chosen (A Semana).

SANTIAGO

The inauguration of Cape Verde’s new national stadium, on the outskirts of the capital city Praia, has been delayed for 15 months due to changes related to building more stands at both ends of the venue. The information was given by the job’s contractor, Chinese company Top International Engineering Corporation, which will add further capacity of 5,000 people to the stadium by increasing the number of seats to 15,000 (Macauhub).

SAO VICENTE

Water and electricity utility Electra has dismantled an illegal electricity and water grid serving at least 60 shanties and houses in the Ribeirinha neighborhood of Mindelo, on the island of São Vicente. A total of 16 individuals suspected of electricity and water theft were identified by police (A Semana).

Cape Verde Business & Economy News

In Cape Verde on March 8, 2012 at 7:26 pm

ECONOMY

The Leeward Islands Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services is promoting the participation of a Cape Verdean business delegation in the 19th edition of the Barcelona food fair in Spain, which takes place between March 26 and 29 (A Semana).

Casinos Morabeza of Las Palmas, Spain, and the Oasis Atlantico hotel group of Portugal have joined forces to obtain a licence for operating casinos in Cape Verde. The casinos will be installed in hotels owned by Oasis Atlantico on Sal Island and in Praia. In a second phase, a casino will be integrated in a future 5 star luxury hotel te be built by Oasis Atlantico on a plot near its Praiamar hotel in Praia, the Oásis Atlântico Prainha Suite Hotel (AW).

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THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Read The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands, updated recently.

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

Atlantico Weekly is looking ahead!

Check out our Cape Verde in 2030 with a realistic glimpse of how Cape Verde will look like in the next decades …!

AVIATION

The employees of private airline Halcyonair working at Praia International Airport submitted a complaint to the Directorate General of Labor, informing the government department that they have not been paid their wages for the past five months (A Semana).

João Pereira Silva, who has been tapped to head TACV Cabo Verde Airlines’ new Board of Directors, has called on two Cape Verdean professionals working abroad, engineer João Carlos Silva and business administrator Marco Pereira, to form the team with which he will manage Cape Verde’s flagship airline (A Semana).

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign. For instance with Emanuel Spencer of SCI, Cape Verde’s first multinational…

SPLIT SECOND POLL

FISHERIES

Cape Verde’s fishing sector will this year be able to account for over 50 percent of the country’s exports, the secretary of state for Marine Resources, Adalberto Vieira said (Macauhub).

Atlantico Weekly’s Angola Business News

In Angola on March 8, 2012 at 7:25 pm

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of the Pestana Luanda Bay Hotel and Resort, the first project of the Pestana Group (link).

POLITICS

The president of the European Commission (EC), José Manuel Durão Barroso, is due to travel to Angola next April to study along with the government new cooperation measures in the areas of the economy, trade, industry, energy, transport, science and technology, according to a report in Angolan newspaper Jornal de Angola (Macauhub).

Angola’s attorney general has summoned witnesses to testify in a case that implicates some of the top figures in the country’s military and security establishment in acts of torture and murder in the diamond fields of north-eastern Angola (AllAfrica).

SPLIT SECOND POLL

ECONOMY

Angola’s exports reached USD 60.9 billion, while the imports stood at around USD 21.14 billion in 2011, the chairperson of the Board of Directors of the National Private Investment (ANIP), Maria Luisa Abrantes, said (Angop).

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ENERGY

Angola’s power production and distribution capacity is set to increase over the next four years thanks to an investment of US$16.5 billion, which will be in line with a rise in industrial and residential demand. The investment was the first big announcement by the new Water and Energy Minister, João Baptista Borges, who replaced Emanuela Vieira Lopes, and is expected to increase Angola’s power capacity by 12 percent, according to the latest report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (Macauhub).

OIL & GAS

Eni SpA is discussing the sale of a portion of its 33 percent stake in Portuguese oil producer Galp Energia SA to Angola’s Sonangol EP. Eni won’t sell Angola’s state oil company all its holding, valued at 3.7 billion euros ($4.8 billion) at today’s price, because the Portuguese government doesn’t want the African country to have too much control. The remaining holding may be sold to financial investors (Bloomberg).

Sonangol’s net profit in 2011 rose to US$3.313 billion according to preliminary estimates, the chairman of the board of the Angolan oil company, Francisco Lemos de Faria said (Macauhub).

TOURISM

The March issue of Up, TAP Portugal’s in-flight magazine is devoted to Angola with a collection of features spanning two dozen pages.

SOCIAL

Orlando Pirates were amongst the first people to arrive at the scene of a horrific car accident in Angola as the team were heading to the airport. The Buccaneers were on the team bus heading back from their failed CAF Champions League encounter against Recreativo do Lobolo when they came across a family of five who had rolled their car on the way to Luanda (News 24).

Angolan Mass Media minister Carolina Cerqueira appealed to the Angolan journalists for greater responsibility in their work. Journalists were told to convey the massages about construction of infrastructures, trust and hope of the Angolan people, dynamism and commitment of youth, determination and courage shown by women, especially taking abroad the images of a people determined to defend the achievements and faithful to the principles leading the country at the concert of nations (Allafrica).

Cape Verde Politics & Regional News

In Cape Verde on March 1, 2012 at 8:52 pm

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of the Vista Ponta do Sol residential project planned for Ponta do Sol, Santo Antao Island (source).

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INTERNATIONAL

A mission made up of entrepreneurs and representatives from various institutions from Fortaleza, the capital of the Brazilian state of Ceará, will visit Cape Verde between April 19 and 26. Among other objectives, the mission is aimed at promoting relations between the customs departments of Brazil and Cape Verde (A Semana).

DEFENSE & SECURITY

The commander of Brazil’s Marine Corps and his Cape Verdean counterpart signed a protocol for the former to supply uniforms to the Cape Verdean Coast Guard (A Semana).

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Read The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands, updated recently.

DIASPORA

The Cape Verdean Museum in East Providence is open for the season, from 1 to 5 pm. The museum is located at 1003 Waterman Ave. The museum is the only museum in America dedicated to the history and culture of Cape Verde and the Cape Verdeans in America (Patch).

FOGO

The São Francisco de Assis Socio-Health Center, owned by the Solidarity for Development Association (ASDE) on the island of Fogo, will become the Fogo-Brava Regional Hospital, following remodeling and the acquisition of new equipment, according to an announcement from Minister of Health Cristina Fontes Lima (A Semana).

A new seismic network for the surveillance and monitoring of seismic activity on the island of Fogo is being installed on the island with the prupose of strengthening the capacity to reduce volcanic hazards (Atlantico Weekly).

SANTO ANTAO

The most well-known Cape Verdean personality in the world of science, Roberto Duarte Silva, who is best remembered for his work in the field of Organic Chemistry, was born 175 years ago. February 25th marked the 175th anniversary of his birth in Povoação de Ribeira Grande, in 1837. He passed away on February 9, 1889, in Paris, France (A Semana).

Cape Verde Business & Economy News

In Cape Verde on March 1, 2012 at 8:51 pm

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

Atlantico Weekly is looking ahead!

Check out our Cape Verde in 2030 with a realistic glimpse of where and how Cape Verde will look like in the next decades …!

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

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AVIATION

The outgoing CEO of TACV Cabo Verde Airlines, António Neves, said on his Facebook page that the company had posted losses of 65,000,000 escudos in 2010 – results that, according to him, may be considered to be positive, in comparison to the losses of 814 million and 241 million escudos registered in 2008 and 2009, respectively (A Semana).

ENERGY

Cape Verde’s stated objective is to have 50% of all energy consumed in 2020 produced from renewable sources. In order to help the country achieve this goal, Luxembourg has provided 55 million escudos financing to help definitively implement projects in the sector. In order to guarantee the sustainability of the sector, Luxembourg is also setting up a professional school aimed specifically at the area of renewable energies (A Semana).

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign. For instance with Helen Hutchings and Steve Cooling of Blu bar, Santa Maria…!

TRANSPORT

The Cape Verdean government will pay more than 1,300,000,000 escudos to conclude work on Sal Rei sea port, on the island of Boa Vista. The expansion of the port, which was originally budgeted at 3.5 billion escudos, has so far swallowed up some 4.8 billion escudos. At the moment work is at a near standstill, with large numbers of workers being laid off (A Semana).

Atlantico Weekly’s Angola Business News

In Angola on March 1, 2012 at 8:49 pm

POLITICS

The Angolan government plans to create 8.2 million jobs by 2025 in a document called “Angola 2025 – a country of the future”, Angop reported. Other targets are reducing poverty by 75 percent, increase per capita gross domestic product (GDP) nine or ten times and reduce average inflation to one digit. Other aims of “Angola 2025″ are to ensure national cohesion, promote peace and tranquillity, equal and sustainable social development, ensure fair distribution of income, macro-economic stability and harmonious development of the country’s regions (Angola Business News).

UN CHIEF

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the government of Angola to do more to reduce the large gap between the country’s wealthy and poor, a move he said would increase stability and unity in the sub-Saharan African nation. Angola is Africa’s second-largest oil producer after Nigeria, but an estimated two-thirds of its population of 18 million people live on less than $2 per day (News24). UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was also concerned by the treatment of illegal migrants on the border of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where uniformed men have raped displaced women (News24). UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also asked Angola to provide helicopters for peacekeeping missions in countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan (News24).

ECONOMY

Nearly 40 percent of Angolan oil is exported to China, representing 16 percent of Chinese imports of hydrocarbon, ANGOP reported. From 2009 the African country became one of the most important sources of oil to China and it is the largest commercial partner in Africa. Angolan exports to China stood at over USD 20 billion (14.8 billion euros) in 2011 and are expected to increase in 2012 (Angola Business News).

Some 100 new business projects are expected to settle in the Catumbela Industrial Development Hub (PDIC) in Lobito, Angola’s Benguela province, hub chairman Samuel Orlando do Amaral said (China Daily).

Angola’s central bank left its the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 10.25 percent (Reuters).

BUSINESS

Angolan company Filmdrehtsich will pay 3.78 million euros to buy a 96.31 percent stake owned by the Portuguese state in cinema company Tobis Portuguesa, Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negócios reported (A Semana).

AGRI ETC

Angolan minister of Economy Abraão Gourgel said that the country might start exporting bananas within the next two years, based on the growth recorded in its production, ANGOP reproted. According to Mr Gourgel, conditions have been created to ensure a continued increase of quality, through a planting system and better technical assistance (Angola Business News).

AVIATION

TAAG appears to be a reflection of Angolan expansion. As the national economy grows and reaches out to the world, TAAG has expanded its flight destinations while China, Brazil and Dubai have become natural additions in recent years. The airline has increased its list of European destinations after obtaining permission to fly to airspace in the continent in 2010. Read the interview with Rui Carreira of TAAG (China Daily).

BANKING

With over $200 billion in total assets and a portfolio that spans across the continent, Standard Bank is the biggest bank in Africa and the largest to enter the Angolan market. Read the interview with Pedro Coelho, CEO of Standard Bank Angola (China Daily).

OIL & GAS

Angolan state oil firm Sonangol posted a 32 percent rise in net profit in 2011, as strong revenues on the back of high oil prices more than offset weak output (Reuters).

The start of operations in the Liquefied Natural Gas (Angola LNG) Project set for the first quarter of this year has been postponed until May 2012, Angop reported. A Sonangol spokesman, Mateus de Brito, said the date has been postponed due to pending tests on the project. In 2011, the Oil minister, José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, announced that the project’s schedules and works on the natural gas processing plant were complete by 62 percent. The northern Zaire province-based Angola LNG Project is a partnership of BP Exploration (13,6 percent), Chevron (36,4), ExxonMobil (13,6), Sonangol (22,8) and Total (13,6) (Angola Business News).

Cape Verde Politics & Regional News

In Cape Verde on February 23, 2012 at 8:11 pm

POLITICS

A movement has sprung up on Facebook in reaction to Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves’s decision to rename Praia International Airport after the South African leader Nelson Mandela. The movement stresses not to hold anything against Mr Mandela, but hopes to convince the government that there are enough Cape Verdean personalities that could be similarly honoured. An Atlantico Weekly poll (still open, in Portuguese) puts those that want to keep the airport’s present name at 47% and those in favor of honouring Mr Mandela at under 9%. Other names favoured are those of former president Pedro Pires and of the late composer Orlando Pantera.

INTERNATIONAL

The Summary for Policy Makers presents the main findings and policy options identified by the report on climate change vulnerabilities in in Cape Verde. The study, funded under the One UN Fund in Cape Verde, was led by the Government of Cape Verde, with support from the United Nations Country team, The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Enda Tiers Monde (AllAfrica).

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

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DEFENSE & SECURITY

Cape Verde plans to set up partnerships with countries such as Portugal and Brazil to acquire fixed wing aircraft to patrol and inspect Cape Verde’s territorial waters, while negotiation with China for the acquisition of helicopters is at an advanced stage (Macauhub).

SANTIAGO

“Electra is an outlaw institution.” This was Praia mayor Ulisses Correia e Silva’s reaction after water and electricity utility Electra cut off the electrical supply to several of the Praia municipal chamber’s installations, including city hall, for lack of payment of outstanding bills. Correia e Silva promises harsh measures on the part of the Praia municipal chamber (A Semana).

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Read The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands, updated recently.

SANTO ANTAO

The township of Monte Trigo, in the south of Santo Antão island, now benefits from a new and renewable energy production and distribution system, that functions by means of photovoltaic panels (Atlantico Weekly).

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