Atlantico Weekly

Archive for the ‘Hotels’ Category

Angola news update, August 2nd

In Angola, Banking, Brazil, Foreign Trade, Hotels, Investments, Mining, Real estate, Security, Telecom, Tourism, Travel on August 2, 2009 at 11:52 am

INDUSTRIES

Angolan deputy Industry minister, Kiala Gabriel, affirmed Friday, in Luanda, that the sector is negotiating with several countries, above all Japan, to support the recovery of projects of some industrial units linked to textile sector (ANGOP).

PORTUGAL

The Banco de Fomento de Angola (BFA) and the Entrepreneurial Association of Portugal (AEP) on Thursday here signed a partnership agreement for the holding of four fairs in the coming two years, the CEO of the banking institution, Emídio Pinheiro, informed (ANGOP).

SPECIAL ZONE

The Angolan governmetn approved the creation of the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone (ZEE). The meeting also formalised the Society of Development of the Luanda-Bengo EP Special Economic Zone, tasked with ZEE’s management and exploration. Luanda-Bengo ZEE is an economic space comprising land, economic and administrative infrastructures, designed to foment production and create jobs, with a view to the modernisation of the national economy (ANGOP).

DIAMONDS

Production of diamonds in Angola may reach in 2009, 7 million carats, as compared to 8.9 million of last year, said on Friday the director of planning and finance of the National Diamond Company (Endiama), Alberto Fancony (ANGOP).

REAL ESTATE

The city of Luanda hosted from July 30 to August 02 the first international fair on the real estate market, which was expected to be attended by 100 firms national and foreign firms (ANGOP).

HOTELS

A new four star-hotel named “Grande Hotel do Uíge” was inaugurated Saturday in northern Uige province’s capital city (Uige) by the minister of Hotels and Tourism, Pedro Mutinde (ANGOP).

GAS

Angola LNG Limited’s stakeholders, Sonangol Gás Natural, Cabinda Gulf Oil Company, BP Exploration (Angola), ENI Angola Production BV and Total LNG Angola announced the creation of two companies to support the project’s development (Macauhub).

TELECOMS

Mobile phone operator Movicel, S.A. has been 80 percent privatized. State-owned companies Angola Telecom and Correios Telégrafos de Angola continue to hold, respectively, 18 and 2 percent of Movicel’s capital stock.
The remaining 80 percent will be held by Porturil-Investiments with 40 percent, Modus Comicare- Comunicações e Imagem Lda with 19 percent, I pang – indústria de Papel e Derivados with 10 percent, Lambda Investement with six percent and Novatel, S.A., with five percent (Macauhub).

SOUTH ATLANTIC

The Angolan government is to provide Brazil with an additional US$500 million credit for Brazilian exports of goods and services to Angola. Angolan exports to Brazil, almost exclusively in petroleum, suffered a fall of 93.7 percent in the first half of this year, in relation to the same period in 2008. Sales to the Brazilian market fell from US$1.2 billion (873 million euros) in the first six months of last year to US$76.3 million (55 million euros) in the first six months of this year (Macauhub).

INVESTMENT

EDP is to set up a holding company with Sonangol Holdings, Banco Privado Atlântico and Finicapital with a view to investing in the production conventional and renewable electrical energy in Angola according to a statement by the Portuguese electricity company (Macauhub).


Cape Verde news update, June 27th

In Agriculture, Angola, Banking, Cape Verde, Economy, Hotels, Security, Tourism, Travel on June 27, 2009 at 11:45 am

HERITAGE

Cidade Velha, Cape Verde’s first settlement and cultural bedrock, has been unanimously declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO Committee (A Semana). Earlier, Cidade Velha was elected as one of the “Seven Portuguese Wonders of the World” (A Semana).

SECURITY

Cape Verde and the United Kingdom signed a memorandum of understanding calling for joint surveillance and patrol operations aimed at combating drug trafficking to be carried out in Cape Verdean territorial waters and in the surrounding zone of the Atlantic Ocean (A Semana).

The Portuguese and Cape Verdean Ministries of Internal Administration have issued a joint communiqué expressing satisfaction at the results obtained so far as part of their cooperation initiatives. They also announced that Portugal will donate 30 computers and 40 passport reading devices to Cape Verde’s Emigration and Border Department (A Semana).

A course on investigating violent crimes, administered by instructors from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), took place in Praia (A Semana).

AGRICULTURE

The Cape Verdean government has created a public capital corporation to manage the agricultural lands it was given in Angola by that country’s authorities as a part of bilateral cooperation between the two states (A Semana).

ECONOMY

According to Fitch Ratings, the Cape Verdean state’s revenues “are below budget forecasts,” and, as a result, the budget deficit will likely be “more than 7% of GDP” this year, considerably more than the 5% mentioned by the government (A Semana).

Cape Verde’s General Directorate for Tax and Contributions (DGCI) calculates that taxpayers owe it 2 billion Cape Verdean escudos (US$25 million), and has announced measures to put an end to tax evasion. Emanuel Moreira, the director-general of the DGCI said that there were currently hundreds of public and private institutions that were not paying taxes and added that the fall in tax collection was not due to the crisis but rather to taxpayers not meeting their obligations (Macauhub).

BANKING

Cape Verdean commercial bank Banco Interatlântico has been distinguished by the magazine Global Finance with the Best Bank award. The magazine, which has been in publication for 22 years and is distributed in more than 150 countries, is an international reference (A Semana).

AIR TRAVEL

TACV Cabo Verde Airlines’ new regional representative in Fortaleza, Brazil, Sá Nogueira, affirms that the company hopes to serve as a link between northeastern Brazil and South Africa during the 2010 World Cup (A Semana).

Portuguese travel agency Soltrópico will introduce another direct flight between Portuguese city Porto and the island of Boa Vista this week. The initiative will be the third weekly flight the company offers to Cape Verde (A Semana).

The director-general for Tourism Development in Cape Verde, Carlos Pires Ferreira, has advised against building an international airport in Santo Antão, if the island should opt for developing quality tourism. Although he recognised that tourists prefer to travel directly to their final destination, Pires Ferreira said he believed that building an international airport in Santo Antão would only make sense if the island opted for mass tourism (Macauhub).

HOTELS

The Roterdão Hotel is Praia’s newest hotel establishment. Located in the city’s Achada de Santo António district, the hotel has 17 rooms – four junior suites, eight doubles and five singles – and is the result of investments of more than 100 million escudos (A Semana).

YOUTH

The town of Tarrafal, on the north of the island of Santiago, has been temporarily transformed into a little Euro-Afro-Brazilian village. There, young leaders from countries as distant from one another as Switzerland and Zimbabwe, Georgia and Brazil, are preparing to turn this new generation into spreaders of knowledge on political, environmental and gender issues (A Semana).

Angola news update, May 17th

In Angola, Banking, Energy, Hotels, Infrastructure, Investments, Telecom, Tourism, Travel on May 17, 2009 at 9:32 pm

Angola will provide in the next eight years about USD 3.5 million of funding to the African Development Bank  (ANGOP).

LUANDA

Angola will soon restart work on a $2 billion facelift of the bay of Luanda that includes new luxury hotels and public parks built on parcels of land along the city’s shoreline (Reuters).

GAS

A liquefied natural gas project in Angola could cost about $10 billion, an executive at consortium member Chevron Corp told a trade magazine, putting a higher figure on it than previously reported (Reuters).

CONSTRUCTION

Portugal’s largest construction company, Mota-Engil, beat forecasts with a 9 percent rise in first-quarter profit and its order book was swelled by new construction and engineering deals at home and in Angola. Net profit rose to 2.4 million euros ($3.25 million) as revenue increased 12 percent to 430 million euros (Reuters).

TELECOMS

Revenue in Angola’s mobile-phone industry may more than quadruple over the next seven years amid “high” demand for services (Bloomberg).

HOTELS

Angolan state oil company, Sonangol plans to open the hotel it is building in south Luanda in August. The hotel is designed to serve the Talatona Convention Centre (Macauhub).

BANKING

Angolan owned Banco BIC Portugal will end the first half of the year with six branches in Portugal, continuing with its expansion plan, the bank’s chairman, Luís Mira Amaral said (Macauhub).

Angola news update, May 9th

In Agriculture, Angola, Biofuels, Economy, Energy, Hotels, Investments, Mining on May 9, 2009 at 10:03 am

DIAMONDS

Angola’s diamond sector is slowly recovering but gem prices still need to rise by around 15% this year to enable companies reinvest in it (Mail & Guardian)

CATTLE RANCHING & FOOD

The 26th edition of Luanda International Fair (Filda) is to take place from July 14-19, with a focus on sustainable development cattle breeding (Angop).

Angola might achieve food self-sufficiency in 2012 with the implementation of the projects under the Agro-farming and forest Extension and Development Programme that aim to distribute  agricultural tools and facilitate credit to farmers (ANGOP).

INVESTMENT

Private investment in Angola reached about USD 700 million during the first quarter of 2009 (ANGOP)

HOTELS

Angolan CHICOIL Business Group has been investing USD 200 million from 2008 for the construction of five hotels in the provinces of Huíla, Namibe, Benguela and Lunda Sul, part of a programme to expand the network of hotels in the country (ANGOP).

ENERGY

The Angolan minister of Energy, Manuela Vieira Lopes, and the deputy chairperson of the Norwegian firm Hydro Aluminium, Arvid Moss, signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of the electro-intensive industry in the country (ANGOP).

BIOFUELS

The Portuguese Visabeira group is preparing projects in the biofuel sector for Angola, which are due to be implemented in 2010 (Macauhub).

Kerzner brings his billions back to South Africa

In Hotels, Investments, South Africa on May 3, 2009 at 2:40 pm

After building mega-resorts from the Bahamas to Dubai, tycoon Sol Kerzner is back home in South Africa with a posh new R843-million ($100-million) hotel, 15 years after pulling up his stakes here in a cloud of controversy.

Read the whole story in the Mail & Guardian

Cape Verde news update, April 24th

In Airports, Banking, Cape Verde, Economy, Facts and figures, Foreign Trade, Hotels, Security, Tourism, Travel on April 24, 2009 at 11:29 am

ECONOMY

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission that came to Cape Verde to evaluate the application of the most recent Policy Support Instrument (PSI), a program established between Cape Verde and the Bretton Woods institution in 2006, has called its analysis “extremely positive.”(A Semana).

Remittances sent back to Cape Verde by Cape Verdean émigrés totaled 10.42 billion escudos in 2008, with the largest portions coming from Portugal (3.1 billion), France (2.2 billion) and the United States of America (1.4 billion) (A Semana).

In 2008 Portugal remained Cape Verde’s biggest trading partner and was the destination of 43 percent of Cape Verdean exports, according to figures issued Monday in Praia by the Cape Verdean National Statistics Institute (INE) (Macauhub).

Cape Verde’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed again in the first quarter of 2009, continuing on the downward trend started in the last quarter of 2008, according to the archipelago’s National Statistics Institute (INE) (Macauhub).

AIR TRAVEL

TACV’s in-flight and land support services received three stars in an evaluation made by an association of 625 airlines and 645 airports. Skytrax World Airlines Awards placed TACV on the same level as Portuguese airline TAP, Brazil’s TAM, Scandinavian Airlines and Continental Airlines (A Semana).

During the first trimester of this year, Cape Verde was the main destination for charter flights departing from Lisbon airport in Portugal (A Semana).

BANKING

Carrying out transactions with so-called “plastic money” has definitively become a part of Cape Verdeans’ everyday life. In the first trimester of this year alone, a total of 4,284,900 escudos were withdrawn in more than 700,000 transactions from machines belonging to the Vinti4 network, which operates all of Cape Verde’s automatic teller machines (A Semana).

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Cape Verde may be being used by Nigerian criminal networks to traffic human beings to Europe, according to an alert issued this weekend by Portugal’s Foreigners and Border Service (A Semana).

HOTELS

The number of hotel establishments in existence in Cape Verde rose 5.3% in 2008 to a total of 158 establishments (A Semana).

Surinam news update, April 24th

In Hotels, Mining, Politics, Surinam on April 24, 2009 at 11:09 am

MINING

Glencore International AG (GI) agreed to buy Surinam bauxite and finance the founding of Alumsur, the country’s new stateowned bauxite mining company.

HOTELS

The new Marriott Courtyard hotel in Paramaribo will be inaugurated in May, adding 140 rooms on six floors to the capital’s capacity.

VENEZUELA

Venezuela’s ambassador to Surinam suddenly returned home “for a extended vacation” after Surinam President Venetiaan complained to his colleague Chavez about the Venezuelan diplomat’s alleged “meddling in Surinam’s internal affairs”.

(DWT)

Angola news update, April 10th

In Airports, Angola, Banking, Hotels, Investments, Retail, Tourism, Travel on April 10, 2009 at 2:07 pm

BANKING

At least USD 120 million will be granted by the US Export and Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) to four Angolan banks (Angop).

A new branch of the Savings and Credit Bank (BPC) was opened last Saturday in Cabinda city, rising to three the number of BPC divisions in the northern province (Angop).

INVESTMENT

The multi-national Coca-Cola Bottling/Luanda has invested USD 70 million in the construction of a brewery dubbed “N’gola-Norte”, in Funda, Luanda (Angop).

Sabmiller/Angola invested USD 12 million through Coca-Cola Bottling in two new products, namely Coca-cola Zero and energy drink Burn (Angop).

The director of the Hydraulic Technical Society “Cimianto” firm in Angola, Francisco Simões, defends the need for setting up more construction equipment factories aimed at making products accessible and cheaper (Angop).

The mineral water production company Purangol has invested US$25 million to increase production (Macauhub).

CONSTRUCTION

The synthetic fibres factory (Fibrex), situated in Viana district in Luanda, expects to increase its production of construction material from 350 tonnes per month to 500 tonnes as from this April (Angop).

RETAIL

A total of 25 proximity stores dubbed “Poupa Lá” will be opened this year in the country’s capital, Luanda (Angop).

At least USD 120 million were earned  by the supermarket chain Nosso Super, since the inauguration of its first shop on 8 March 2007 in Luanda (Angop).

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Aa new Angolan traffic law that carries fines of over $1,000 for drivers who fail to respect the speed limit, forget to put on a seat belt, or talk on cell-phones while driving (Reuters).

AIR TRAVEL

Emirates Airlines, the United Arab Emirates air carrier, has announced the launch of flights between Dubai and Luanda as of 1 August, operating three times a week, and thus increasing the airline’s African destinations to a total of 17 (Macauhub).

On Wednesday the European Commission kept Angolan airline Taag on its list of companies banned from flying in European airspace, but acknowledged the “significant progress” made by Angola (Macauhub). But Taag is to increase the number of flights to Beijing from two to three per week as of 7 April (Macauhub).

HOTELS

The Angolan province of Huíla will have a new four star hotel by December of this year, which will be the property of Angolan group Chicoil and is an investment of over US$18 million (Macauhub)

Cape Verde news update, April 10th

In Airports, Banking, Cape Verde, Hotels, Infrastructure, Investments, Media, Security, Tourism, Travel on April 10, 2009 at 9:16 am

BANKING

Cape Verdean bank, Banco Interatlântico, owned by Portugal’s Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), posted a net profit in 2008 of 212.4 million Cape Verdean escudos, or 27 percent more than in 2007, the chairman of the bank said (Macauhub).

TOURISM

Cape Verdean President Pedro Pires affirmed this weekend that it was time for Cape Verdeans to get past their “spirit of survival” and show more boldness and entrepreneurship. Pedro Pires, who spoke at the official opening of the tourist village Sírio in Chã das Caldeiras, on the island of Fogo, stressed that “it’s time to think about the future, and we have to know what future we want and what future we can build.” (A Semana)

Cape Verde saw a 6.5% increase in the number of tourists visiting the country in 2008 despite the international financial crisis, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE) (A Semana).

INFRASTRUCTURE

The INC/Engeobra consortium has concluded asphalting work on the recently-completed road connecting Porto Novo and Janela, on the island of Santo Antão. Work on the highway, considered one of Cape Verde’s longest, began in 2003, and the road will be officially opened to traffic in May or June of this year (A Semana).

LAW ENFORCEMENT

The Judiciary Police will investigate accusations made by the PAICV regarding the existence of a corruption scheme inside the São Vicente municipal chamber, which is administered by the political party MpD. Reliable sources say that the police will investigate the alleged favoring of individuals close to the MpD in the distribution and sale of 68 plots of land on the island of São Vicente (A Semana).

The Supreme Court of Justice on Monday ordered the detention of three Judiciary Police agents allegedly involved in the theft of 140 kilograms of cocaine from police safes last year. The three agents, whom the Supreme Court had ordered released late last year, are now back at Praia’s São Martinho prison (A Semana).

SECURITY

Airport and Air Security company ASA and the National Police signed a protocol Monday afternoon for the acquisition and installation of optical and biometric reading devices in Cape Verde’s four international airports. The 13 million-escudo investment is aimed at quickening and improving security services in the airports (A Semana).

SEX

Cape Verde is first on a list of more than 40 sub-Saharan African countries in terms of condom use, according to last Sunday’s edition of French newspaper Le Monde. Some 70% of Cape Verdeans with more than one sexual partner say they use prophylactics (A Semana).

The Portuguese edition of Playboy will be distributed in Cape Verde, according to an announcement by Frestacom, the company responsible for the recent release of the publication in Portugal (A Semana).

Surinam news update, April 3rd

In Banking, Hotels, Investments, Surinam, Tourism, Travel on April 3, 2009 at 9:32 am

HOTELS

Paramaribo is to get another 4-star hotel by March 2010. The Wyndham Garden Hotel is to be built in downtown Domineestraat. Total coast of the project will be 22 million USD. The project will be developed by the local City Group, together with Hakrinbank, the Fatum insurance company and the Aruba Investment Bank. The Chinese Anhui Foreign Construction Group, also responsible for the new Chinese Embassy in Surinam, has been contracted to build the hotel.

WATER

Experts and officials have been discussing the possibilities for the export of Surinamese water at the Waterforum. The potential for the export of bulkwater is enormous: 330 billion cubic metres per year of rain and huge  sweetwater reserves are waiting for international investors and customers.

(De Ware Tijd)

Brazilian favela turned tourist hotspot?

In Brazil, Hotels, Security, Tourism on March 21, 2009 at 4:41 pm

A 52-year-old German born entrepreneur, who made his money in currency trading, plans to build around 10 well-appointed villas on top of Rio shantytown Vidigal where tourists will be able to taste luxury and the gritty life of the slum at the same time.

Read the full article in the International Herald Tribune

Angola news update, March 13th

In Angola, Banking, Economy, Hotels, Investments, Tourism, Travel on March 13, 2009 at 7:20 pm

ECONOMY

Angolan economic growth will be at least 3 percent this year, Angola’s Economy Minister Manuel said Tuesday in Lisbon (Macauhub).

INVESTMENT

The Portuguese investment in Angola in 2008 reached Usd 620 million, almost three times more than the previous year. The information was released Thursday in Luanda by the Portuguese ambassador to Angola, Francisco Ribeiro Teles (Angop)

BUSINESS

Angola drinks company Sociedade de Bebidas de Angola (Beba) is producing 240,000 boxes of Vale do Keve mineral water each month at Porto Amboim, in the Angolan province of Kwanza Sul, the chief executive of the bottling plant said (Macauhub).

Portuguese construction company Teixeira Duarte has been awarded the contract for construction of Angola’s new parliament building, a project estimated to cost US$80 million, according to the online version of newspaper Jornal de Negócios (Macauhub).

TRAVEL

The German airways Lufthansa intends to increase its weekly flights to Luanda, from the current once a week to twice a week, so as to strengthen its presence in  Angola (Angop).

Angolan group Maboque is building, in the Benfica area in the south of Luanda, a hotel with 500 rooms, including 20 presidential suites, at an estimated investment of US$300 million, Angolan news agency Angop reported (Macauhub).

A three stars hotel named “Suite Hotel Maianga” with 54 bedrooms, belonging to the State-run national oil company (Sonangol), was inaugurated Friday in Luanda, by Angolan Hotel and Tourism minister, Pedro Mutindi (Angop).

The runway at Mbanza Congo airport, in the capital of Angola’s Zaire province, is due to have lighting in the second half of the year, which will make it possible for aircraft to land and take-off at night, according to Angolan news agency Angop (Macauhub).

BANKING & FINANCE

Angolan Development Bank (BDA) approved throughout the year 2008, credits estimated at 8.7 billions kwanzas, the equivalent to about 116 millions US dollars, of which two billions went to indirect operations, namely through commercial banks (Angop).

Angolan bank Banco Privado Atlântico (BPA) has been given authorisation from the Bank of Portugal to set up a European subsidiary in Lisbon,, according to Angolan newspaper Expansão (Macauhub).

The China Development Bank is available to provide a credit line worth over US$1 billion to Angola, aimed at the agricultural sector, the chairman of the bank, Chen Yuan said in Luanda Thursday (Macauhub).

The governments of Portugal and Angola Wednesday in Lisbon signed agreements to increase the credit line for national exports, which will be boosted to 1 billion euros, and creation of a new 500 million-euro credit line (Macauhub).

The investment bank owned by Angolan oil company Sonangol and Portuguese bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) is due to be launched in the second half of the year and its chief executive will rotate between the two companies, the first term being the responsibility of the Angolan company, the chairmen of the two companies said in Lisbon Thursday (Macauhub).

Soccer star Nani to promote Cape Verde

In Cape Verde, Hotels, Investments, Tourism on February 4, 2009 at 10:37 pm

Nani, the famous portuguese/capeverdean football (soccer) player from Manchester United just signed a contract for the promotion of the investments handled by the capeverdean consultancy, marketing and investments agency.

Read the story at Visao News

Cape Verde news round up, Feb. 5th

In Cape Verde, Economy, Hotels, Investments, Tourism, Travel on February 4, 2009 at 10:34 pm

Representatives of the governments of Cape Verde and Brazil have been meeting in Praia on January 26, to negotiate Cape Verde’s debt with the South American giant. Cape Verde’s debt to Brazil is estimated at close to US$ 4 million.

The Cape Verdean government will elaborate and/or revise a series of legal norms in order to improve competitiveness and business performance and provide greater effectiveness and transparency in the management of state-run companies in the country. On February 3, specialists working in the institutions affected by the decision participated in an informational workshop directed by the Ministry of Finances and Public Administration.

Iberostar Hotels and Resorts closed 2008 with a total business volume of 836 million euros, a 3.5% increase over the year before. Despite the cautious stance the company intends to adopt in 2009, Iberostar is planning to open eight new establishments in Spain, Greece, Montenegro, Turkey, Morocco, Cuba and Cape Verde. In Cape Verde, the chain hopes to begin its activities with the Iberostar Boavista, a 4-star establishment on the island of Boa Vista, in November of this year.

(A SEMANA)

CVDC plans massive investments for Cape Verde

In Cape Verde, Hotels, Investments, Real estate, Tourism, Travel on January 16, 2009 at 3:30 pm

A delegation of business executives from the Cape Verde Development Corporation will carry out a second work visit to the country before the end of January to discuss the implementation of the projects presented in December with their local partners. The company’s legal counselor, lawyer David Hopffer Almada, guarantees that the entrepreneurs are very interested in getting several of these projects started within six or seven months.

Read the article in A Semana

Cape Verde: wrong tourism model for Sal island

In Cape Verde, Hotels, Real estate, Tourism, Travel on January 16, 2009 at 3:28 pm

Lusophone University professor Eduardo Ferreira released a study Friday, January 9, on tourism in Cape Verde. In his thesis, entitled “Sustainable tourism as a factor in the development of small island economies: the case of Cape Verde,” the author highlights environmental errors and the over-construction seen on the island of Sal, which, according to his conclusions, should be avoided as the economy of tourism expands to other islands in the country.

Read the article in A Semana

Angola: Capital to get another luxury hotel

In Angola, Hotels, Tourism, Travel on January 10, 2009 at 10:23 pm

Luanda, Angola, 6 Jan – Building of the 24-floor Alameda Hotel Towers will begin in the first three months of this year and the new establishment is a replacement high-end hotel for the ageing Hotel Escola Alameda, the Jornal de Angola newspaper has reported.

Read the news story at Macauhub

Surinam news round up – Jan 11 2009

In Economy, Hotels, Infrastructure, Mining, Oil, Security, Stock exchange, Surinam, Tourism, Travel on January 10, 2009 at 6:05 pm

Business and the Economy

Economists fear that the downturn of the Dutch economy may have consequences for the flow of remittances to Surinam by The Netherlands’ 330.000 citizens of Surinam origin. These yearly transmit 125 million Euros to Surinam.

Surinam’s newest and largest hotel, Marriott Courtyard will open in April 2009.

Surinam has applied to host a regional UNDP headquarters, that is to be moved from Trinidad and Tobago. But the UNDP will most likely choose a lesser developed country as host. Surinam is expected to be a UN donor country in about five years, according to the Minister of Planning and Development, Mr van Ravenswaay.

Surinam state owned oil company Staatsolie announced investments of 85 million USD for carrying out new explorations in the 2008-2912 period. CFO Kortram also noted that oil reservies in the country amount to 73,7 million barrels, enough for 12,5 years of production at the present rate of 16.000 barrels a day.

Alumsur, the new state owned bauxite company is to get a 25 % stake in the Paranam refinery, Minister for Natural Resources Rusland announced. Negotiations and studies are nog yet completely concluded however.

The French Republic is to donate 25 million USD for the rehabilitation of the East-West Road, linking Paramaribo with the border of French Guyana.

Parbo beer shares are the most sought after shares at the Surinam Stock Exchange (SEB). Trade is slow on the exchange that lists 11 well run companies.

Security

Surinam Police Chief Delano Braam noted in his Owru Yari (Year’s end) speech that 77 % of the Surinam population now feels secure. For 2008, the Surinam police collected 17 million SRD in fines.

Brazil announced plans to increase security at its borders with several neighbouring countries, among which Surinam. Extra platoons of border guards will be stationed at several locations to increase border control in the thick Amazon rainforests.

The Surinam National Army (NL) will gain new equipment, international training, new recruits and new military posts for the interior in 2009. The NL has international programs with the US, France, China, Brazil, India and the Netherlands. Along the border with Brazil, joint patrols are anticipated with the Brazilian forces. Overall aim is to increase the visibility of the NL.

(De Ware Tijd)

Cape Verde: new business tourism complex

In Cape Verde, Hotels, Investments, Tourism, Travel on January 3, 2009 at 11:53 pm

The Cabo Verde Development Corporation is going to build an international quality tourist enterprise aimed at business tourism in Cape Verde. The signing of the protocol between tourism and investment promotion agency Cabo Verde Investimentos and the Cabo Verde Development Corporation, originally slated for Friday, has been rescheduled for today, December 29.

Read the story in A Semana

Portuguese firms invest in hotels construction

In Angola, Hotels, Investments, Tourism, Travel on December 5, 2008 at 1:50 pm

Luanda  – More than six Portuguese companies are interested to invest in Angolan hotel market, through the construction of reference hotels in Luanda, under an investment of more than 30 million Euros.

Read the news feature at Angop

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