Atlantico Weekly

Archive for the ‘Sao Tome and Principe’ Category

Cape Verde news update, November 1st

In Airports, Cape Verde, Economy, Hotels, Real estate, Sao Tome and Principe, Security, Tourism, Travel on November 1, 2009 at 9:51 pm

TOURISM & REAL ESTATE

Prime Minister José Maria Neves presided over the opening of the Public-Private Forum on Residential Tourism on October 30. The forum, whose theme is Residential Tourism – An opportunity for the future of Cape Verde, is being promoted by Promitur and is held at Jotamont Music Academy in Mindelo. The event is intended as a way to share impressions and ideas by both the private and public sectors and the various stakeholders in the residential real-estate and tourism market in the country (A Semana).

AIR TRAVEL

US air company Delta Airlines will begin flying to the island of Sal in the first quarter of 2010, after the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) gave a positive evaluation to the island’s Amílcar Cabral International Airport. Delta Airlines is expected to carry out two weekly flights between Atlanta, Georgia and the island of Sal in Cape Verde (A Semana).

Dutch charter company ArkFly starts operating flights from Amsterdam to Sal and Boavista later this month, with stops at Las Palmas.

Angolan flagcarrier TAAG has started weekly flights between the capitals of Luanda and Praia as of last week.

HOTELS

The Morabeza Hotel on the island of Sal has been named Cape Verde’s “Leading Hotel,” a classification given by World Travel Awards (A Semana).

SECURITY

The driver of the ambassador of France in Cape Verde, Fernando Delgado Fortes, was killed in the city of Praia with five shots at a close range, two of them in the head (Visaonews).

ECONOMY

According to figures collated between September 2008 and April of this year, Cape Verde in 2007 had 7,512 companies, as compared to 5,460 in 2002, which is a rise of 38 percent. Most companies are active on the islands of Santiago (3,233 companies), Sao Vicente (1,531), Sal (775) and Santo Antao (522) (Macauhub).

Stability and security and the level of civic participation and respect for human rights distinguish Portuguese speaking African countries, particularly Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe, from their continental counterparts (Macauhub).

Angola news update, July 18th

In Airports, Angola, Banking, Brazil, Elections, Foreign Trade, Investments, Oil, Politics, Polls, Sao Tome and Principe, Telecom, Tourism, Travel on July 18, 2009 at 10:16 am

OIL

CNOOC and Sinopec have agreed to purchase a stake in an oil block offshore Angola from Marathon Oil as the Chinese state-owned companies continue to buy up overseas energy assets (Reuters).

An oil exploration well in deepwater Block 16 off Angola has shown positive results, Denmark’s Maersk Oil and Gas said (Reuters).

The oil and gas division of Brazilian construction company Odebrecht also announced the oil discovery on the Angolan coast, in a prospection operated by Maersk Oil (with 50 percent), newspaper Estado de São Paulo reported. “It is light oil, of good quality, which was found at a depth of 4,725 metres, 315 kilometres of the Luanda coast,” the company’s chairman, Miguel Gradin told the Brazilian newspaper (Macauhub).

POLITICS

Prospects of Angola’s post-war presidential poll taking place in 2009 receded after the group in charge of drafting a new constitution, a precondition for the vote, said it was likely to need more time. The Constitutional Commission said that work on a new constitution could take longer than expected. The group requested an 180-day delay from the initial deadline of September 23 (Reuters).

TELECOMS

Unitel, Angola’s biggest mobile- phone operator, said it will spend $1.7 billion over the next four years upgrading infrastructure and expanding its network (Bloomberg).

TRADE

The commercial exchanges between Spain and Angola have recorded a significant growth in the past five years, and currently they reached a volume of about one billion euros (ANGOP).

VEHICLES

The CSG car manufacturing factory, located in Viana district, Luanda, announced that it will supply all makes of vehicles such as jeeps, pick-ups and small, medium and large capacity buses, as well as spare parts processing, trading and rent cars (ANGOP).

BANKING

The director of the northern region of Savings and Credit Bank (BPC), Ilda Silva, said that her institution will open six more counters in the provinces of Kwanza Norte, Malanje, Cabinda and Zaire this year. The province of Kwanza Norte will benefit from an agency, Cabinda (2), Zaire (2), including one in the city of Soyo and the other in Mbanza Congo, and Malanje (1), in the town of Cangandala (ANGOP).

INVESTMENTS

Portugal’s direct investment in Angola rose three-fold in the 2008/2009 period, from 210 million euros to 634 million euros, said Portugal’s ambassador to Angola, Francisco Ribeiro Teles in Luanda (Macauhub).

Angolan Banco de Desenvolvimento de Angola (BDA) has, since it started operating in 2007, provided loans totalling US$200 million to Angolan businesspeople in the non-oil sector (Macauhub).

AIR TRAVEL

Taag, Angola’s flagship airline plans to re-launch its flights to Lisbon, Portugal on 1 August after the European Commission decided Tuesday on a partial lift on the carrier’s ban from flying in European air space (Macauhub).

The air carrier for Sao Tome and Principe, STP Airways, is due on 29 July to start flying to Angola, with a flight to Luanda that will be linked to the Lisbon-Sao Tome flight, the company’s public relations director said (Macauhub).

LOGISTICS

Spanish company Mercasa will create over 2,000 jobs in Angola by 2010, with the conclusion of a logistics centre that is being built in the municipality of Viana, Luanda (Macauhub).

Brazil looking for allies in the South Atlantic

In Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Economy, Ghana, Mining, Namibia, Oil, Sao Tome and Principe, Security, South Africa, Surinam on May 22, 2009 at 5:37 pm

Brazil is trying to forge an alliance with African and South American countries to defend seabed mining rights and strategic shipping lanes in the South Atlantic.

Read the full story at Reuters

Sao Tome news update, May 22nd

In Brazil, Oil, Retail, Sao Tome and Principe on May 22, 2009 at 5:04 pm

OIL

Sao Tome and Principe and Nigeria are expected as of 2011 to auction off four new oil blocks, which are smaller than those currently under prospection, the president of the Joint Development Authority (JDA) said (Macauhub).

LOAN

The President of Nigeria, Umaru YarÁdua has requested that parliament approve a government proposal to grant a subsidised loan of US$10 million to Sao Tome and Principe, to help the country to solve its financial difficulties (Macauhub).

RETAIL & BRAZIL

Over 150 containers of various food stuffs are due to arrive in Sao Tome from Brazil on 29 April, as part of the first imports by local retailers, thanks to a credit line of US$5 million from the Brazilian government (Macauhub).

PRIVATISATION

The government of Sao Tome and Principe intended to privatize the water and electricity company and should shortly launch an international tender, said the minister for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment Monday in Sao Tome (Macauhub).

Surinam and Cape Verde have most free press

In Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Media, Panama, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, Surinam on May 5, 2009 at 10:35 am

Freedom House, a US based NGO, have published their 2009 report on international freedom of the press. Of the countries featuring in this news site, Freedom House considers Surinam (43rd place), Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe (both 60th) and South Africa (66th) as “free”. The organisation considers Brazil (89th) and Panama (92th) as “partly free” and Angola(132nd) as “not free”.

Read the full report and how Freedom House came to these concusions here.

Sao Tome PM to discuss oil cooperation in Brazil

In Brazil, Oil, Sao Tome and Principe on March 13, 2009 at 7:38 pm

The prime minister of Sao Tome and Principe, Rafael Branco, has begun a five-day visit to Brazil with oil, energy and education at the top of his agenda.

Read the news feature at Macauhub

Sao Tome president “still in charge”

In Politics, Sao Tome and Principe on February 25, 2009 at 5:44 pm

The president of São Tomé and Príncipe, Fradique de Menezes, spoke out on Tuesday for the first time since a foiled coup attempt nearly two weeks ago and declared that he remains in charge.

Read the full story in News 24

Sao Tome close to oil deal with Angola

In Angola, Oil, Sao Tome and Principe on February 23, 2009 at 7:57 pm

Sao Tome and Principe is close to signing a deal with Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol to help start pumping oil from the tiny African island nation’s coast, a senior government minister said on Friday.

Read the full article at Reuters

Fifth Portuguese Language Business Meeting

In Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Foreign Trade, Portuguese language, Sao Tome and Principe on February 12, 2009 at 6:27 pm

Fortaleza, Brazil, 10 Feb – The Fifth Portuguese Language Business Meeting, an initiative of the Council of Portuguese Chambers of Commerce in Brazil, will take place in Fortaleza on 28 and 29 September 2009, the Council announced in a statement.

Read the full story on Macauhub

Sao Tome: Sonangol builds free trade area

In Angola, Infrastructure, Oil, Ports, Sao Tome and Principe on February 12, 2009 at 6:25 pm

Sao Tome, Sao Tome and Principe, 2 Feb – The Sao Tome state and Angolan oil company Sonangol Sunday signed am agreement to create a free trade area to sell fuel and provide services to ships crossing the Gulf of Guinea.

Full story in Macauhub

Cape Verde “most free”

In Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Economy, Elections, Politics, Sao Tome and Principe on January 16, 2009 at 3:21 pm

Cape Verde is the country with the 77th freest economy in the world, and in West Africa comes in first place, according to an index elaborated by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal.

Read the news feature in A Semana

Earlier the newspaper had reported a similar announcement from Freedom House.

The annual report by Freedom House includes Cape Verde on the list of free countries, a distinction shared, among the world’s Portuguese-speaking nations, with Portugal, Brazil and São Tomé and Príncipe. Guinea Bissau, East Timor and Mozambique are considered “partially free,” while Angola is considered “not free,” with restrictions to political rights and civil liberties, despite the positive trend begun with the 2008 legislative elections.

Read the latter article here

Work at Principe airport due to start

In Airports, Infrastructure, Sao Tome and Principe, Tourism, Travel on January 10, 2009 at 10:22 pm

Santo António, Sao Tome and Principe, 7 Jan – Modernisation work on the airport at Principe Island is due to begin in the second half of January, Dutch businessman Rombout Swarborn told Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Read the news story at Macauhub

Ambassadors call for Portuguese to be used at UN

In Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Portuguese language, Sao Tome and Principe on January 10, 2009 at 4:47 pm

Diplomat Arnaldo Andrade, Cape Verde’s ambassador to Portugal, is a member of a group of Portuguese-speaking ambassadors formalized Monday in Portuguese capital Lisbon under the auspices of Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva.

Read the news feature at A Semana

Angolans invited to invest in Sao Tome

In Angola, Investments, Sao Tome and Principe on December 22, 2008 at 7:27 pm

Luanda – The Sao Tomean MP, Aurélio Martins, encouraged Angolan business people to invest in his country, in a moment that Sao Tome and Principe records a political stability, he says.

Read the news feature at Angop

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