Atlantico Weekly

Archive for the ‘Airports’ Category

Cape Verde Politics & Islands

In Airports, Cape Verde, Politics on September 17, 2010 at 8:28 am

POLITICS

The accelerating of the liberalisation process and the pace of modernisation of the infrastructure with the construction of roads, airports, ports and sanitation allowed Cape Verde to be more competitive, the Prime Minister said (Inforpress).

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The Cape Verdean stand’s logotype at the 2010 Shanghai Expo earned sixth place in a contest promoted by the newspaper China Daily. The contest included the stands of 130 American, African and European countries. Cape Verde is the only African country to be classified in the top nine (A Semana).

Two Brazilian teachers, of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul are supporting the University of Cape Verde on the programme of strengthening skills in Portuguese language and Mathematics of the students selected in the recent admission tests of Uni-CV (Inforpress).

The Cape Verdean businesswoman Loide Monteiro announced that the establishment of a Federation of Entrepreneur and Business women of ECOWAS, is being prepared in Cape Verde (Inforpress).

LAW ENFORCEMENT

The fight against drugs in West Africa has been welcomed as a milestone by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). Decisive action was taken last month by Cape Verde authorities, which marked the latest move in a growing response by West African countries to the threat of drug traffickers seeking to exploit the region (PoliceProfessional).

FOGO, BRAVA

Minister of Infrastructures, Transportation and Telecommunications Manuel Inocêncio Sousa signed the contract for the expansion and modernization of the sea ports on the islands of Fogo and Brava, September 13. Also, Sousa signed a contract for the asphalting of the road connecting the town of Furna, where Brava’s port is located, to the city of Nova Sintra (A Semana).

SAL

The Santa Maria Tourist Information Center has reinitiated its activities after more than a year-long hiatus. With a new service philosophy, the center will encourage compatibility between the development of tourism and cultural promotion (A Semana).

SAO NICOLAU

Armed Forces Chief of Staff Colonel Fernando Pereira made a two-day visit to the island of São Nicolau, where he met with the military contingent currently stationed there to support local authorities during the rainy season and visit installations that, in the future, could host a permanent military detachment on the island (A Semana).

Cape Verde Business & Economy

In Agriculture, Airports, Banking, Cape Verde, Economy, Ports, Real estate, Telecom, Tourism, Travel on September 17, 2010 at 8:27 am

CV Fast Ferry’s first vessel Kriola nearing completion at the Singapore facilities of Damen Shipyards of the Netherlands (Source: FORCV)

AGRI

With the latest rains registered over the past two days, farmers on the islands of Fogo and Brava are even more hopeful regarding the prospects for a good harvest. In some of the higher-altitude regions of the two islands, agricultural workers have begun harvesting the first fruits of their labor (A Semana).

AVIATION

Tropical storm Julia, which has been lashing Cape Verde with rain and winds since Sunday afternoon, has already forced TACV Cabo Verde Airlines to cancel a number of domestic and international flights (A Semana).

Praia International Airport has a new parking lot with a total of 429 parking spaces (A Semana).

The tourism industry in Cape Verde and Boa Vista has received a further boost with the news that Cape Verde Experience plan to run flights from Stansted and Bristol.  The sister company of Gambia Experience will also add flights between Cape Verde and Banjul, Gambia, opening up possibilities for multi-centre holidays (Assetz)

REAL ESTATE

Commercial bank Caixa Económica de Cabo Verde acquired 89.8% of the future bonds issued by state real-estate company IFH, for the first time achieving a position of leadership in a Stock Exchange operation in Cape Verde. With the funds from the bond issue, IFH expects to be able to complete the infra-structuring of its Palmarejo Grande real estate project in Praia by March of 2011 (A Semana).

Cape Verde is rapidly attracting visitors and investors alike looking to capitalise on what promises to be the world’s next property hot spot. Nestled 400km off the coast of West Africa, the Cape Verde islands boast a year-round temperate climate, meaning there’s no low season, leading to exceptionally high occupancy rates and rental yields for investors (Assetz).

TELECOMS

Cabo Verde Telecom has suspended salary negotiations and unilaterally decided to grant a 2.5% wage increase, retroactive to January of this year (A Semana).

Angola Business News

In Airports, Angola, Economy, Foreign Trade, Investments, Oil, Politics, Ports, Travel on September 17, 2010 at 8:27 am

POLITICS

Angola’s powerful Economy Minister, Manuel Nunes Junior, will step down soon, two privately owned weekly newspapers cited unnamed sources as saying (Reuters).

The campaign for Angola’s 2012 elections is off to a ill-tempered start with the ruling MPLA party and the opposition UNITA party accusing each other of dirty tactics that threaten a return to violence in the oil producing nation (Reuters).

ECONOMY

Angola’s annual inflation quickened to 13.99 percent year-on-year in August from 13.7 percent the previous month, the National Statistics Institute said (Reuters).

Angola’s central bank has loosened the kwanza peg by allowing local banks to bid for U.S. dollars at its weekly auctions with fewer bidding restrictions (Reuters).

Higher exports and oil prices have helped Angola’s economy recover in 2010, while companies are spending more now that the government has started to pay off some of its debt, the deputy governor of the country’s central bank said (Reuters).

OIL

Angola’s daily crude oil exports are scheduled to drop in November, according to the preliminary loading plan which excludes shipments of the Palanca grade (Bloomberg).

AVIATION

Air France-KLM plans flights to new African destinations, among which Angola (Bloomberg).

BUSINESS

A shipyard with a 250 metre-long dock was opened in Porto Amboim, in Angola’s Kwanza Sul province, as part of an investment of US$150 million.
The investment is part of a partnership between Angolan company Cenbir and Dutch company Heerema Marine Contractors, and the shipyard has two 300-ton cranes, two transport rafts and a tug (Macauhub).

Portugal’s largest builder Mota-Engil plans to sell a 49 percent stake in its Angolan unit to local partners Sonangol and BFA in the next few weeks, Chief Financial Officer Luis Silva said (Reuters).

TRADE

The trade volume between India and Angola is estimated at over USD 5 billion (ANGOP).

Cape Verde Business & Economy

In Airports, Banking, Cape Verde, Economy, Hotels, Real estate on August 13, 2010 at 4:21 pm

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

New project for Sal Rei, the capital of Boa Vista island (source: Escape Verde).

ECONOMY

For a small string of barren volcanic islands that have no natural resources, suffer from chronic droughts and are perched far off Africa’s west coast, Cape Verde is punching well above its weight. Read the article at Reuters.

REAL ESTATE

A nice overview of real estate opportunities in idyllic Cape Verde can be found in The Daily Telegraph.

BANKING

Portuguese bank Banco Espírito Santo announced the formation of a “strategic partnership” with Brazilian commercial banks Banco do Brasil and Bradesco aimed at the African market, by opening Banco Espírito Santo Africa’s capital up to the two Brazilian institutions. The operation includes Cape Verde (A Semana).

AVIATION

Passenger traffic in Cape Verde’s airports in the first half of 2010 was 5.6% higher than during the same period past year, with the upward trend more pronounced in international (6.1%) than domestic (5.3%) activities (A Semana).

TRANSPORT

Passenger transportation company Transcor will file a court injunction this week against the São Vicente municipal chamber’s decision to grant a temporary license allowing the company Sotral to transport passengers on five city bus lines (A Semana).

Angola Business News

In Airports, Angola, Banking, Oil on August 13, 2010 at 4:20 pm

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Portugal, one of Europe’s ailing economies, is increasingly placing its hopes of recovery on Angola (New York Times).

ECONOMY

Angola’s annual inflation rate dropped to 13.70 percent in July (Bloomberg).

SOCIAL

Landmines left behind by Angola’s three-decade long civil war have killed 166 people and injured hundreds more in the last four years (Reuters).

BANKING

Banco do Brasil and partners Banco Bradesco and Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo will focus their Africa expansion in Angola, South Africa and Morocco (Reuters).

AVIATION

A new international airport will be built in Soyo, on the outskirts of the Lumueno area, 20 kilometres to the south of the city (Macauhub).

OIL

Total announced the launch of development of the CLOV project and the awards of the principal contracts. This project is the fourth development pole in Angola`s deep offshore Block 17, after Girassol, Dalia and Pazflor (Reuters).

Norway’s Statoil says its CLOV development in Angola approved with drilling scheduled to begin in 2012 and first oil expected in 2014 (Reuters).

Cape Verde politics & regional

In Agriculture, Airports, Brazil, Cape Verde, Elections, Infrastructure, Investments, Politics, Tourism on June 27, 2010 at 7:31 am

ELECTIONS

Praia’s Jorge Barbosa National Auditorium proved too small for the crowd of youths and batuko singers who made their way there to express their support for a possible presidential bid on the part of David Hopffer Almada. With a relative scarcity of major political names, the event was attended, among others, by former Minister of Culture Manuel Veiga (A Semana).

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will begin a trip to the African continent on July 3. The trip, which will begin in Cape Verde, will also take him to Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa (A Semana).

Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva will visit Cape Verde from July 4th  to 7th at the invitation of his Cape Verde counterpart, Pedro Pires, in order to participate in the commemorative ceremonies of the 35th anniversary of Cape Verde’s independence.

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero reiterated his government’s willingness to “reinforce the European Union’s strategic relationship with Cape Verde” during a meeting with Cape Verdean Prime Minister José Maria Neves. Madrid will maintain the financial support it has given Cape Verde, particularly in the fight against the threats posed by organized crime and drug trafficking (A Semana).

Cape Verde will participate in the implementation of a “One Stop Shop” for the tourism sector in five provinces of Mozambique, following the signing recently of a cooperation protocol between Cape Verde’s NOSi and Mozambique’s Ministry of Tourism (A Semana).

DEFENCE

The commander of the United States African Command Africom has affirmed that “trafficking of all kinds robs Africa of its economic potential” and cited Cape Verde’s fight against drug trafficking and maritime security program as “an example to follow” (A Semana).

SAL

The mortality rate of sea turtles on the island of Sal dropped by approximately 10% in 2009 as a result of the protection and preservation campaigns carried out last year (A Semana).

SANTO ANTAO

Prime Minister José Maria Neves presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of the Porto Novo port dock on the island of Santo Antão (A Semana).

The next major investment planned for Cape Verde’s Santo Antao Island will be the airport, whose studies have already been completed, Cape Verdean Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves said (Macauhub).

About 15 thousand pines, grevillea and acacias will be planted during July and August in the forest perimeter of Planalto Leste, in Santo Antão.

SANTIAGO

The Capeverdean government signed the contract for the construction of three dams on Santiago, as part of the programme for  infrastructure for the agricultural sector and water management. The dams are widely believed to spark of an agricultural revolution on the island.

SAO NICOLAU

The first dams to be built on São Nicolau will be in Ribeira Brava, in the Valley of Fajã, Tucudo, in the valley of Queimadas , and Ribeira de João (Inforpress).

Cape Verde business & economy

In Agriculture, Airports, Banking, Cape Verde, Economy, Infrastructure, Investments, Politics, Real estate, Tourism on June 27, 2010 at 7:30 am

ATLANTICO WEEKLY ON VACATION

Please note that the Atlantico Weekly team will be on holidays during the month of July. There will be therefore no new editions until August. And yes, we will be swimming in the Atlantic…

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

The Ponta Bicuda resort on Santiago (Ponta Bicuda).

PICTURES WANTED!

Please help us develop this Building of the Week feature and send us your pictures of interesting buildings or developments…

ECONOMY

A new study revealed that Cape Verdean emigrants’ remittances sent to their families are used largely for consumption, especially in food and the education of their children (Inforpress).

AVIATION

Cape Verdean state airline, TACV is to buy two aircraft to increase its fleet and has launched a new class, between economy and executive, for improved passenger comfort (Macauhub).

TOURISM

The doors to the second edition of tourism trade fair Expotur opened last Friday. Some 50 stands and 31 exhibitors – 10 of them foreign – are inside São Filipe Fort in Cidade Velha. Some 15 international journalists have also come to Cape Verde to give “greater projection” to the event, the theme of which this year is “Back to the Origins.” Expotur will run until June 27 (A Semana).

All of Cape Verde’s islands show potential for the development of rural tourism, according to a study carried out at the request of the National Union of Tourism Operators (Unotur). The study investigated the available tourist products and their diversity in rural areas of all of the country’s municipalities (A Semana).

The municipality of Porto Novo on the island of Santo Antão is the site of Cape Verde’s first youth hostel, which was officially unveiled by Prime Minister José Maria Neves (A Semana).

BANKING & FINANCE

The net results of Banco Interatlântico (BI) of Cape Verde (part of the Portuguese Grupo Caixa Geral de Depósitos) decreased around 2 percent in 2009 compared to 2008 (Inforpress).

The City Hall of Sal has earned 200 million Cape Verdean escudos (US$2.2 million) from its bond issue, carried out from 7 to 18 June by the Cape Verdean Stock Exchange (Macauhub).

MEDICAL SECTOR

The Italian Ettore Sansavini Foundation for the promotion of health in the world, that runs the management of the Hospital São Francisco de Assis in São Filipe since  Ferbuary, aims to make this hospital a reference for the Islands and for the West coast of Africa (Inforpress).

Cape Verde politics & regional

In Airports, Cape Verde, Politics on June 20, 2010 at 9:26 am

EUROPEAN UNION

Last week’s poll on Atlantico Weekly could hardly have been clearer. No less than 90 % of those of you that participated in the poll on the question of Cape Verde’s accession to the European Union voted in favour!

BRAVA

The main headline on the front page of today’s printed edition of A Semana reveals that Brava will finally get a new airport. Following a government decision, Airport and Air Security Company ASA has hired external consultants who will begin a preliminary study between now and September to determine where the airport will be located on Cape Verde’s smallest inhabited island.

SANTIAGO

Praia residents have adhered en masse to a project aimed at safeguarding the city’s architectural heritage. The project, which is being promoted through Facebook, is an initiative of the group Maltas di Praia di Tudo Tempo, and, according to one its promoters, Paula Barbosa, already has some 1,200 “friends” on the social networking site (A Semana).

The Praia Municipal Council plans to issues bonds worth 450 million Cape Verdean escudos (4.08 million euros) via the cape Verde Stock Exchange, the Mayor of Praia, Ulisses Correia e Silva, announced (Macauhub).

Cape Verde business & economy

In Agriculture, Airports, Banking, Real estate on June 20, 2010 at 9:26 am

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

The Alto Morabeza residential complex in Mindelo, Sao Vicente.

BANKING

Commercial banks Banco Comercial do Atlântico (BCA) and Banco Interatlântico could merge to form a single institution, while Portuguese bank Banco Espírito Santo has confirmed its plans to go ahead with the opening of a branch in Cape Verde (A Semana).

COFFEE

Did you know you can buy your organic coffee from Fogo or Santo Antao online at Cafes FAMA?

AGRICULTURE

Minister of the Environment, Rural Development and Marine Resources José Maria Veiga participated in an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting in Senegalese capital Dakar aimed at mobilizing financial resources for the implementation of its National Agricultural Investment Plan, evaluated at UUS$ 100 million (A Semana).

AVIATION

Cape Verde and the European Union (EU) signed an agreement on a bilateral horizontal air instrument that reinforces the traditional connection between the parties in this strategic sector (Inforpress).

Angola business news

In Airports, Angola, Economy, Oil, Real estate, Retail, Telecom on June 20, 2010 at 9:24 am

ECONOMY

Angola’s annual inflation rate climbed to 13.85 percent in May as food and non-alcoholic- beverage prices increased, the National Statistics Institute said. Inflation accelerated from 13.73 percent in April (Bloomberg).

TELECOMS

The Angolan mobile-phone operator Unitel approved a USD 800 million investment plan for the 2010/2011 period (ANGOP).

INVESTMENTS

Angola is providing 10-year visas to foreign investors and plans to launch a website where it will be possible to exchange information in real time (Macauhub).

AVIATION

Angolan state airport manager Enana plans to continue executing its modernisation and equipment programme for the country’s airports.
Since 2008, Enana has been carrying out a programme of refurbishment, modernisation and equipment of around 30 large, medium-sized and small airports across the country, as part of a project estimated to cost around US$400 million, under the terms of the Public Investment Programme (Macauhub).

REAL ESTATE

The Companhia Angolana de Comercio (CAC) is investing US$20 million to build a new shopping centre in Luanda Sul (Macauhub).

OIL

The extraction of a billion barrels of oil from offshore Bloc 17 in the ten years since operations began was commemorated on the Girassol production, storage and export vessel and attended by officials representing the sector, Sonangol and Total, the operating company and Bloc 17 associates (Statoil, Esso and BP) (Macauhub).

Angola business news

In Airports, Angola, Investments, Oil, Ports on June 13, 2010 at 10:49 am

OIL

Maersk Oil said its Chissonga-2 appraisal well in Block 16 offshore Angola yielded encouraging results and it expected to decide in early 2011 whether to start production (Reuters).

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Foreigners working in Angola’s booming construction sector are sexually abusing underage girls in the southern city of Huila, an anti-Aids organisation said (News24).

A human rights campaigner has been sentenced to three years in jail by an Angolan court that convicted him of committing crimes against the state, in what his lawyer says is part of a crackdown on activists (News24).

PORTS

The acquisition of three tug boats will make it possible to speed up the process of mooring and departure of ships at the port of Luanda, the managing director of the Angolan Maritime and Port Institute said (Macauhub).

ENERGY

The start of operation of the Ngove hydroelectric dam in 2011 in Angola, will make it possible for the government of Huambo province to save 843 million kwanza (US$9 million) (Macauhub).

AIRPORTS

Angola’s Minister for Urbanism and Construction, José Ferreira, announced the construction, as of next year, of a new airport for the city of Mbanza Kongo, the capital of Zaire province (Macauhub).

Angola business news

In Airports, Angola, Brazil, Economy, Infrastructure, Investments, Oil, Tourism, Travel on June 6, 2010 at 7:47 am

ECONOMY

Grinding poverty, human rights abuses and police detentions are fuelling tension in Angola’s oil-rich province of Cabinda, but for now, international oil companies have little to fear (News24).

AVIATION

Beginning this week, Atlas Air is operating three weekly nonstop flights between George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and Luanda, Angola. The newly customized Boeing 747-400 aircraft, provided by the Angolan SonAir company, feature 10 First Class, 143 Business Class and 36 Economy Class seats with the latest in-flight entertainment and comfort (Reuters).

OIL

Sonangol SA, Angola’s state oil company, will seek partners to help fund the development of Brazilian offshore blocks after buying exploration company Starfish (Bloomberg).

TRANSPORT

Angola’s Moçâmedes Railroad is to receive more locomotives and carriages for first, second and third class travel this year, which are due to start operating from the city of Lubango, Huila province (Macauhub).

ENTERTAINMENT

Angolan casino company Casinos de Angola plans to invest US$55 million over the next three years in opening three new casinos and refurbishing another (Macauhub).

SPLIT SECOND POLL


Cape Verde business news

In Agriculture, Airports, Cape Verde, Economy, Real estate, Tourism, Travel on May 30, 2010 at 11:17 am

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

The Jacaranda Lodges project in the town of Paul on Santo Antao island (Imobrisa).

ECONOMY

The vice-director of the International Monetary Fund’s Africa Division, Valerie Cerra, affirms that Cape Verde’s economic performance has been “very positive” and that the “prudent” policies used resulted in a “quick reaction to the crisis” (A Semana).

AGRI

Cape Verdean producers of grogue, a brandy distilled from fermented sugarcane juice, attended the 13th edition of the Expocachaça trade fair at the Expominas pavilion in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais (A Semana).

AVIATION

Cape Verde is soon due to sign a “horizontal air agreement” with the European Union (EU), the first step in a process that will lead to an “open skies” policy with the 27-country block, Minister Manuel Inocêncio de Sousa said (Macauhub)

TOURISM

“Surfari Cape Verde” is a vacation package to the island of Sal being promoted by Portuguese travel agency Entremares this summer. As a part of the package, TACV Cabo Verde Airlines has offered to transport surfboards of up to 1.5 meters in length at no additional fee (A Semana).

Cape Verde received 92,000 tourists in the first quarter of the year,. a rise of 5.5 percent against the same period of 2009, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said (Macauhub).

SPLIT SECOND POLL

Angola business news

In Airports, Angola, Banking, Economy, Investments, Politics, Ports, Travel on May 30, 2010 at 11:17 am

ECONOMY

Angola’s parliament is due to vote on a new law that would end the central bank’s ability to determine monetary policy, a proposal submitted to parliament for approval showed (BusinessDay).

South African companies are discovering the business opportunities in Angola. Read the story at BusinessDay.

The fiscal and customs incentive policies adopted by Angolan Government in 2003 have been attracting investments into the country’s least developed provinces (ANGOP).

Fiscal Police effectives will need to redouble efforts in the fight against tax evasion, so as to guarantee better results in terms of revenue that can be channelled to the State’s General Budget (ANGOP).

PORTS

Around 200 hectares of the land on which the future port of Luanda will be built, in Angola’s Bengo province, have been demined, the National De-Mining Institute (Inad) said (Macauhub).

Cooperation between Japan and Angola has made it possible to refurbish the port of Namibe, an investment worth US$24 million, the director general of the port, Bento da Paixão said (Macauhub).

MARKET LIFE

In the slums of Angola’s capital Luanda lies one of Africa’s biggest outdoor markets, Roque Santeiro, where poor Luanda residents can make a living or buy cheap food for their families. Read the report at Reuters.

BANKING

The International Businesses Bank (BNI) two more counters in Lobito and Benguela cities as part of the expansion of its services throughout the country (ANGOP).

AVIATION

The air company “Emirates” has just released recently in Dubai, a service to permit its clients to buy tickets through mobile phone, named “Mobile Emirates.com” (ANGOP).

BUSINESS

Angoflex dealing in manufacturing pipes for oil firms has increased  its production from 80 to 200 pipes per day, in the first quarter of this year, its director-general, Philippe Monti, announced (ANGOP).

A new beer brand, dubbed “Tchizo”, was released in the northern Cabinda province, in a ceremony witnessed by the governor of northern Cabinda province, Mawete João Baptista (ANGOP).

Portuguese group Sociedade Lusa de Negócios (SLNI) is to build a cement factory in Angola under the terms of a contract signed in Luanda with the Angolan National Private Investment Agency (ANIP) (Macauhub).

Cape Verde business news

In Agriculture, Airports, Cape Verde, Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade, Investments, Tourism, Travel on May 24, 2010 at 7:40 pm

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

The Copacabana residential complex in Mindelo on Sao Vicente (Tecnicil).

ECONOMY

Credit rating agency Fitch this month maintained its rating on Cape Verde and the country’s outlook as “stable” despite warning of rises in public and foreign debt levels (Macauhub).

ENERGY

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a 15 million euro loan to Cape Verde to finance a wind energy project on four of the country’s islands (Santiago, Sao Vicente, Sal and Boavista), the institution announced (Macauhub).

CRUISE

Based on its dimensions and the number of people and amount of money it involves, cruise-ship tourism in Cape Verde is in need of a socio-economic impact and tourist satisfaction study (A Semana).

WINE

Recently created Vitalsum, an Italian-Cape Verdean company based on the island of São Vicente, has begun to produce three brands of red and white wine for the Cape Verdean and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) markets. Various types of juice are also in company’s plan for the next 12 months (A Semana).

AVIATION

The May/June issue of trade magazine Airports of the World has dedicated four pages to the island of Boa Vista and its international airport in a report entitled “Boa Vista: African beach paradise” (A Semana).

TOURISM

The second edition of the Cape Verdean tourism trade fair Expotur will take place in São Filipe Fort in Cidade Velha between June 25 and 27. With a “much larger” budget than last year, Expotur already has a 26% occupation rate for its stands, and this year’s theme will be “Back to the Origins” (A Semana).

MICRO CREDIT

US organization Africare has committed itself to help Cape Verde in the microcredit, small business, education and agricultural sectors, according to one of its founders, Curtir Winsor. The fact that the Cape Verdean community in the United States is made up largely of “good, hard-working and honest people” was a major contributing factor in the decision (A Semana).

Angola news update, May 9th

In Airports, Angola, Economy, Real estate, Telecom on May 11, 2010 at 7:51 am

ECONOMY

Angola, which is expecting a sovereign credit rating next week, is likely to postpone an international bond sale of as much as $2 billion and will instead opt to sell $1 billion of domestic debt (Bloomberg).

TELECOMS

The number of mobile-phone users in Angola has increased to eight million, due to the market liberalization in the 1990s, said the national director of Telecommunications, Pedro Mendes de Carvalho (Angop).

AVIATION

Servisair, a new Angolan airline, is due to start operating Wednesday with a flight between the cities of Luanda and Lubango in Huíla province (Macauhub).

REAL ESTATE

The first edition of the Angola Real Estate Fair (Sima) opened in Luanda, attended by over 50 companies (Macauhub).

Cape Verde news update, May 2nd

In Airports, Banking, Cape Verde, Energy, Politics, Real estate, Tourism, Travel on May 2, 2010 at 10:51 am

POLITICS

Praia mayor Ulisses Correia e Silva said that the search carried out by the Judiciary Police in the São Vicente municipal chamber building was an excessive show of force. According to Correia e Silva, if similar measures had been taken regarding acts committed by the previous administration of the Praia municipal chamber, war tanks and bazookas would have been needed (A Semana).

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Cape Verde is in the race to host the headquarters of the Institute of West Africa (IWA) (Inforpress).

REAL ESTATE

Construction and real-estate company Sogei has unveiled its headquarters in one of the two buildings it has completed in Praia’s Chã d’Areia district, where two more business towers – one to serve commercial bank BAI and the other the future headquarters of the bank Caixa Económica de Cabo Verde – are under construction, making up what is already being called Praia’s financial district (A Semana).

The workers of the company Construções de Cabo Verde (CVC) that went  on strike for a period of 24 hours, demanded a salary readjustment around 20 percent, retroactive salary accumulated and better balance between the various sectors within the company (Inforpress).

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

The BAI offices in downtown Praia (Sogei).

AIRPORTS

The Cape Verdean airline company TACV started weekly flights connecting São Vicente and Lisbon (Inforpress).

During the first quarter of 2010, passenger traffic in Cape Verde’s airports grew 9.1% in relation to the same period last year. Amílcar Cabral International Airport on the island of Sal, with a total of 161,007 passengers and growth of 6% in comparison to the first quarter of 2009, accompanied the upward trend that appears to be spurring the world economy and the Cape Verdean tourism sector (A Semana).

Minister of Internal Administration Lívio Lopes presided over the unveiling of the Secure Automatic Exit and Entry Process system (known by the Portuguese-language acronym PASSE) at Boa Vista International Airport (A Semana).

The projects planned for the Sal, Boa Vista and Praia airports could come to be financed by the African Development Bank, according to an announcement by Airport and Air Security company ASA administrative council president Mário Paixão at the end of a brief visit by African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka (A Semana).

The volume of air cargo moved in Cape Verde registered an overall reduction of two percent in the first trimester of 2010 (Inforpress).

INTERNET

Users of Internet services provided by Cabo Verde Multimédia, a subsidiary of Cabo Verde Telecom, have been experiencing frequent problems, with no explanations provided by the company (A Semana).

PRAIA

Praia mayor Ulisses Correia e Silva said that the municipal chamber is going to build a new central market in the city. The new market is to be located on the current site of the Coco soccer field in order to improve sanitary and organizational conditions. Correia e Silva presented the project for the market to Praia’s saleswomen (A Semana).

ENERGY

Germany is to invest 40 million euros in four wind farms on four islands in the Cape Verdean archipelago, Cape Verde’s Tourism Minister said (Macauhub).

Cape Verde news update, April 11th

In Agriculture, Airports, Cape Verde, Energy, Infrastructure, Investments, Oil, Real estate, Security on April 11, 2010 at 7:53 pm

POLITICS

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

ECONOMY

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

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

ENERGY

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

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

BUSINESS

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

DEFENCE

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

REAL ESTATE

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

Angola news update, April 4th

In Airports, Angola, Brazil, Economy, Oil, Travel on April 4, 2010 at 1:46 pm

ECONOMY

The Angolan economy is expected to return to growth of close to 10 percent this year, with the recovery of the oil sector and expected investments, according to estimates from Espírito Santo Research published Monday in Lisbon (Macauhub).

AIR TRAVEL

Angola’s TAAG airline received partial exemption from the European Union (EU) blacklist of foreign airlines banned from flying to Europe (BusinessDay).

OIL

Total SA discovered hydrocarbons for the second time in the north-eastern area of Block 17 deep offshore Angola (Bloomberg).

Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corp) announced it had agreed to acquire deepwater oil assets in Angola, paying US$2.46 billion for a 55 percent stake in Sonangol Sinopec Internacional (Macauhub).

ATLANTICO

MAN Latin America, a subsidiary of German group MAN, has opened a showroom in Angola to sell Volkswagen trucks produced in Brazil (Macauhub).

Cape Verde news update, March 7th

In Airports, Cape Verde, Economy, Energy, Hotels, Investments, Politics, Tourism, Travel on March 7, 2010 at 2:29 pm

POLITICS

The Research Institute on West Africa Regional Integration, an entity created to promote regional integration and which will be headquartered in Praia, will have an initial budget of € 37 million (A Semana).

ECONOMY

The International Development Association will loan some 500 million escudos to the Cape Verdean government for the fishing sector in an accord with the West Africa Regional Fishing Program that will permit the construction of storage facilities and the purchase of equipment (A Semana).

The 200 million-euro credit line granted by the Portuguese government to help make up for a housing deficit in cape Verde may only be used by companies in consortiums from both countries (VisaoNews).

AIR TRAVEL

Private airline Halcyonair affirms it is confounded by TACV Cabo Verde Airlines’ decision to take it to court because of a debt that Halcyonair has not only acknowledged, but that already has a payment plan agreed upon by both parties (A Semana).

Halcyonair announced that the number of flights operated by the company between Praia and São Filipe would be increased from three to five per week (A Semana).

The Minister the Internal Administration, Lívio Lopes, announced today that the scanners available to the National Commission of Weapons will be installed at strategic points in the country, together with the Customs, Enapor and airports (Inforpress).

Cape Verdean air carrier, TACV, is in July due to launch a scheduled flight linking Boa Vista and Sal to Madrid (Macauhub).

HOTELS

The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Energy, Fátima Fialho, underlined today the importance of the project of the future Hotel Excelsior, five stars, which will be built in the area of Gambôa, in Praia (Inforpress).

ENERGY

Britain is to spend £26 million building a wind farm to power the entire Cape Verde (Telegraph)

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