Atlantico Weekly

Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

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).

Angola Business News

In Agriculture, Angola, Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade, Hotels, Politics, Travel on September 10, 2010 at 9:35 am

POLITICS

Angola’s main opposition UNITA party is using last week’s riots in Mozambique along with false accusations of government corruption to incite civil unrest in the oil-producing nation, a ruling MPLA party spokesman said (Reuters).

Angola’s ruling MPLA party brushed aside reports of corruption involving senior government officials earlier this year as a smear campaign aimed at hurting the party ahead of general elections in 2012 (Reuters).

DEFENCE

Angola’s army said it will send a team to help reform the military of Guinea Bissau, a country with a long history of coups and instability (News24).

ECONOMY

Angola’s trade surplus reached $9.04 billion in the first quarter of the year, the head of the National Statistics Office said, without providing a figure for the same period last year (Reuters).

Angola’s government will launch a complete overhaul of its tax regime to improve collection and increase revenues, Minister of State Carlos Feijo said (Reuters).

The pension funds established in Angola in 1998, by 2008 had achieved turnover of some US$320 million (Macauhub).

The Angolan government has alrerady paid 60 percent of its debt to private companies within the terms it committed to pay (Macauhub).

AGRI

A project that aims to turn Huíla province into the biggest supplier of grain in Angola in four years has already made it possible to identify at least 80 large producers in the region, the vice president of the Industrial Association of Angola (AIA) said (Macauhub).

TWITTER & LINKEDIN

You can now follow Atlantico Weekly on Twitter at atlanticoweekly.

Also be welcome to join our Atlantico Weekly networking and discussion group on Linkedin.

POWER

Angola announced an $18 billion plan to overhaul its dams and power grids and end all power cuts by 2016 (Reuters).

TRANSPORT

Angolan taxis will raise fares in the coming weeks due to a sharp rise in fuel prices, a move that could trigger protests from impoverished Angolans who rely on thousands of 14-seater taxi vans to go to work each day (Reuters).

HOTELS

Construction of the first four-star hotel in the city of Ondjiva, the capital of Angola’s Cunene province, which began last April, is due to be concluded in August 2011 (Macauhub).

Angola Business News

In Angola, Brazil, Economy, Oil, Real estate, Stock exchange, Travel on August 27, 2010 at 8:34 am

ECONOMY

Angola has suspended efforts to get more foreign loans, so that the government can assess their benefit to the country’s development (Bloomberg).

Angola said it had paid $1.28 billion of a government-estimated $6.8 billion in overdue bills to local and foreign builders in the southern African nation as it tries to restore investor credibility (Reuters).

A proposed stock market in Angola, which vies with Nigeria to be Africa’s top oil producer, will rank “at least third” in sub-Saharan African market capitalization (Bloomberg).

OIL

Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, said it’s investigating an oil spill in Angola (Bloomberg).

Angolan state-run oil firm Sonangol will start building a long-delayed $8 billion refinery this year in a bid to cut back on imports of refined products, which have weighed on the economy, its oil minister said (Reuters).

AVIATION

Brazilian regional airline Puma Air has been authorised to provide four flights per week between Brazil and Angola, the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) said (Macauhub).

EDUCATION

The Angolan minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Maria Cândida Teixeira, appealed to managers of Higher Institutes of Education Sciences (ISCED) to create of centres of excellence in their academic regions (AllAfrica).

BUSINESS

The South African Shoprite Group is investing USD 13 million in the construction of a supermarket, in Huambo city, whose works started in the first quarter of this year (AllAfrica).

REAL ESTATE

The Angolan subsidiary of the Brazilian group Build Brasil has changed its name to Build Angola and plans to launch on Monday a housing project budgeted at US$50 million (Macauhub).

Cape Verde Business & Economy

In Brazil, Cape Verde, Tourism, Travel on August 20, 2010 at 8:04 am

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

Render of the Vila Verde resort project to be built on the island of Sal (source).

TOURISM

“Cape Verde is an ideal winter-sun destination and a place of great contrasts, as each of the 10 islands offers a slightly different experience,” says Serenity. “It reflects an exotic blend of African, Brazilian and Portuguese cultures, and the beaches are among the best in the world” (TTG Live).

TWITTER & LINKEDIN

You can now follow Atlantico Weekly on Twitter at atlanticoweekly.

Also be welcome to join our Atlantico Weekly networking and discussion group on Linkedin.

AVIATION

Figures provided by PressTur reveal that Cape Verde is the third most sought-after destination for charter flights departing from Porto, Portugal’s second-most important city. Numbers for July indicate that 2,513 passengers traveled to Cape Verde on charter flights, 75% more than in the same month last year (A Semana).

HOUSING

The Cape Verdean government aims to build 3,000 houses by the end of 2011 under the “House for All” programme, financed by a 200 million euro credit line from Portugal, the Minister for Decentralisation, Housing and Territorial Planning has indicated (Macauhub).

DIASPORA

More than 17,000 took in Saturday’s Onset Cape Verdean Festival, which was a peaceful jubilee of music, sun, heritage, and food until a stabbing marred the otherwise festive celebration late in the afternoon (South Coast Today).

The US are entering prime time for the “Cape Verde hurricanes.”  An average of two of these storms form each year, most in August and September, and usually within 600 miles of the Cape Verde islands, off West Africa. They gain strength as they cross the Atlantic. Some move into the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico (Ike 2008). But others sweep up the Atlantic Coast, threatening coastal communities from Florida (Andrew 1992), the Carolinas (Hugo 1989) to New England (1938) (Baltimore Sun).

CLOSED POLL

Cape Verde business & economy

In Cape Verde, Economy, Energy, Oil, Tourism, Travel on August 1, 2010 at 8:47 am

TOURISM

“The State should play the role that belongs to it as an incentive-provider, promoter and leader of the tourism development process in Cape Verde,” according to Praia mayor Ulisses Correia e Silva, who spoke at the closing session of the Private/Public Forum on Residential Tourism organized by Promitur (A Semana).

The President of the Cape Verdean Association of Real Estate Tourism Promoters (PROMITUR), Olavo Correia, stressed the need to increase financial resources for the promotion of the destination Cape Verde (Inforpress).

BUSINESS

Multinational Vitol-SA, which specializes in the commercialization of fuel, is negotiating the purchase of 19 of Shell’s regional subsidiaries in Africa, including the company’s operation in Cape Verde (A Semana).

Cape Verdean fuel company Empresa Nacional de Combustíveis (Enacol), which is majority-owmed by Portugal’s Galp Energia, at the end of May had a market share of 60 percent (Macauhub).

A Cape Verdean delegation led by the president of the Leeward Islands Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services participated in the 5th Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) Business Forum in Angolan capital Luanda, where it showed investment opportunities in the archipelago (A Semana).

AVIATION

The Cape Verdean government is negotiating the possibility of an open skies agreement with the European Union. Minister of Infrastructures, Transportation and Telecommunications Manuel Inocêncio Sousa revealed that the process “is not easy,” but did not deny the government’s hope of achieving an agreement, following the signing in June of a horizontal accord integrating all of the other accords entered into with the EU (A Semana).

Cape Verde’s TACV airline began a regular weekly flight to Madrid, meant to “attract Spanish tourists to the island country,” said the company’s director, Georgina Melo (Macauhub).

OIL

Brazil will support Cape Verde’s efforts to prospect for oil and gas in ultra-deepwater areas around the island country, the Brazilian president and Cape Verdean prime minister announced in Santa Maria (Macauhub).

POLLS

Cape Verde: business & economy

In Cape Verde, Economy, Energy, Hotels, Infrastructure, Investments, Tourism, Travel on June 6, 2010 at 7:47 am

BUILDING OF THE WEEK

The new hotel at Fortim Mindelo, Sao Vicente

ECONOMY

The “great economic synchronisation” of Cape Verde with Europe, in particular the Euro Zone, “where there are serious problems”, will constrain the Cape Verdean economy in case of a deepening of the crisis, the Governor of the Bank of Cape Verde (BCV) warned (Inforpress).

TOURISM

Portuguese and Cape Verdean businesspeople are interested in carrying out the cruise liner terminal project in Sao Vicente, the chairman of port management company Enapor said in Praia (Macauhub).

UTILITIES

The Council of Ministers has authorized water and electricity utility Electra to transfer rights and obligations to a private Cape Verdean corporation for the transportation and distribution of electricity and water on the island of Boa Vista (A Semana).

PICTURES WANTED!

Please send us your pictures of new developments and buildings on Cape Verde so we can continue our feature Building of the week…

SPLIT SECOND POLL

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).

Cape Verde Business & Economy

In Agriculture, Cape Verde, Economy, Ports, Real estate, Security, Stock exchange, Tourism, Travel on May 16, 2010 at 10:14 am

ECONOMY

Bank of Cape Verde governor Carlos Burgo has confirmed forecasts predicting a slight recovery for the nation’s economy, which is expected to grow between 4% and 5% this year, with a “significant” reduction of the risks predicted in initial forecasts. Burgo also forecasts growth in Cape Verde’s GDP and slight improvement in public revenues, but alerted to “existing risks and uncertainties” (A Semana).

A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrived in Cape Verde Thursday as part of the evaluation of the Policy Support Instrument (PSI) (Macauhub).

TOURISM

Portuguese travel agency Entremares is promoting its “Cape Verdean Triangle” program, which offers tourists three nights on the island of Sal, two nights on São Vicente and two nights on Santiago, with prices starting at 949 euros per person in double rooms (A Semana).

FINANCE

Sal will be the first municipality in Cape Verde to issue future bonds on the Stock Exchange to obtain financing. The Sal municipal assembly has approved the technical details of the public offer totaling 200 million escudos. Praia is likely to follow close on Sal’s heels, with a 450 million-escudo bond issue (A Semana).

PORTS

The scanners purchased by port management company Enapor from Chinese firm Nuctech to heighten shipping container traffic security at Praia, Mindelo and Palmeira sea ports are expected to be operational starting next month (A Semana).

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 25th

In Agriculture, Cape Verde, Economy, Energy, Media, Politics, Telecom, Tourism, Travel on April 25, 2010 at 1:18 pm

POLITICS

The National Assembly has approved the new journalists’ statute, which consecrates the mandatory need to have a degree of higher learning in journalism in order to practice the profession in Cape Verde (A Semana).

Former Portuguese president Ramalho Eanes admits that the decolonization process carried out by Portugal in 1975 “was not the best,” but even so considers the idea that Cape Verde should not have become independent, voiced several days ago by his successor, former Portuguese president Mário Soares, “not very reasonable” (A Semana).

DEFENCE

Cape Verde may be chosen to host the headquarters of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Naval Logistics Base (A Semana).

ECONOMY

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected 5% growth in the Cape Verdean economy for this year, a figure expected to improve to 5.5% in 2011, according to the institution’s World Economic Outlook (A Semana).

ENERGY

The island of São Vicente experienced several power outages Wednesday, April 21, particularly on the outskirts of the city of Mindelo and other villages, where the blackout lasted for more than 16 consecutive hours. According to water and electricity utility Electra, the power cuts were caused by a technical problem in the main generator at the Lazareto power station (A Semana).

AGRICULTURE

“The lifting of the embargo on agricultural products from the island of Santo Antão is scheduled to take place in July,” according to Minister of the Environment, Rural Development and Marine Resources José Maria Veiga (A Semana).

The City hall of Ribeira Grande de Santiago joins today to the Earth Day with a programme of distribution and planting fruit trees, in the Cidade Velha (Inforpress).

TELECOM

The project for the extension of Cabo Verde Telecom’s fiber optics network in Chã das Caldeiras on the island of Fogo will move forward with the placement of aerial rather than underground cables, despite recent protests by local residents, who feared the aerial cables would jeopardize the area’s natural beauty (A Semana).

HEALTH

Cape Verde is among the 10 countries oin Africa that have managed to decrease malaria prevalence in its territory by approximately 50 percent between 2000 and 2008, as WHO data show (Inforpress).

TRAVEL & TOURISM

The certification process is delaying the arrival of new plane ATR of the private air carrier Halcyonair (Inforpress).

The confidence indicator for the Tourism sector in Cape Verde in the first quarter posted its lowest level since 2002, the year in which the archipelago’s National Statistics Institute (INE) first launched the series of Company Economic Climate Surveys (Macauhub).

Angola news update, April 18th

In Angola, Brazil, Economy, Hotels, Infrastructure, Investments, Mining, Oil, Travel on April 18, 2010 at 2:25 pm

ECONOMY

Angola scaled back plans to raise as much as $4 billion in a sale of bonds without credit ratings, seeking instead to issue $1 billion to $2 billion, according to Finance Minister Carlos Lopes (Bloomberg).

Angolan inflation accelerated to 13.8 percent in March from 13.66 percent in February because of food and beverage costs, the National Statistics Institute said (Bloomberg).

The National Private Investment Agency (ANIP) approved until 30 November 2009 projects amounted to about USD 1.4 billion, more than the USD 105.8 million of  2008 (Angop).

BUSINESS

M-I SWACO, a drilling fluids venture partly owned by Schlumberger Ltd, has won a contract from Chevron Corp for work off Angola that could lead to $800 million in revenues over six years (Reuters).

TRAVEL

Angolan group Silisa has invested some US$2.5 million in the construction of a hotel complex in the Benfica neighbourhood of Luanda, the “Sunsil Hotel” (Macauhub).

INFRASTRUCTURE

The Angolan Council of Ministers has approved the acquisition of 15 locomotives, 150 carriages and 231 wagons for the country’s rail network (Macauhub).

MINING

Angola is once again moving ahead with the mega mining projects for extraction and processing of iron and copper, which involves a search for international investors to support the projected high level of investment. Amongst the companies that have already been in contact with Empresa Nacional de Ferros de Angola (Ferrangol) are Brazil’s Vale, one of the world’s biggest mining companies, and Korea’s Samsung (Macauhub).

Cape Verde news update, April 4th

In Brazil, Cape Verde, Hotels, Telecom, Tourism, Travel on April 4, 2010 at 1:46 pm

POLITICS

The Cape Verdean government does not have enough diplomats to place in all of the countries where Cape Verdean communities exist, Minister of Foreign Affairs José Brito, admitted (A Semana).

ECONOMY

2010 began with a 10.2% drop in remittances from Cape Verdean émigrés in January, in comparison to the month before. And those remittances coming from the United States and the Euro Zone saw even more drastic drops, of 11.8% and 11.1%, respectively, in comparison to December 2009 (A Semana).

ATLANTICO

The 4th General Cape Verdean Population and Housing Census will be carried out in 2010 with the support of Brazil, which will make 150 handheld computers, known as PDAs, available for census-taking activities. The technology, which was developed by the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute (IBGE), will be used to count the population and in the training of Cape Verdean census-takers (A Semana).

The Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Service is preparing three business missions in April,  to China, Brazil and Canary Islands (Inforpress).

HOTELS

Six of Cape Verde’s hotels have been nominated for the 17th edition of the World Travel Awards. The Oásis Atlântico Novorizonte, Oásis Atlântico PraiaMar, Dunal del Sol, Foya Branca, Morabeza and Migrante Guest House have been nominated in the Cape Verde’s Leading Hotel category (A Semana).

The proposed 7star Palm View Resort on Boa Vista was awarded building licenses by the Cape Verdean authorities. The luxury will be constructed on the  exclusive beach front of Chaves Beach (Visao News).

TELECOMS

Cape Verde jumped from 107th to 102nd place on the list of countries in terms of the development of information and communication technology. Cape Verde occupies fourth place in Africa (A Semana).

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).

Angola news update, March 21st

In Angola, Banking, Brazil, Economy, Investments, Oil, Ports, Travel on March 21, 2010 at 10:57 am

ECONOMY

Angola must take further steps to create a “sustainable” fiscal position, limit inflation and build its foreign-exchange reserves, the International Monetary Fund said (Bloomberg).

Angola’s economic indicators remained stable in 2009 with the economy growing 2.7 percent in real terms due to the expansion of the non-oil sector, according to a report approved by the Angolan government (Macauhub).

PORTS

The country has saved between 500 million to one billion US dollars, through the reduction in the time of goods clearance at the Luanda Port to about 10 to 15 days (ANGOP).

Soyo Port, in the northern Zaire Province, is increasing its investments framework in technical and administrative infrastructures to meet the economic growth demand in this region of the country (ANGOP).

OIL

Angola may request a review of its oil-production quota, the country’s Oil Minister said (Bloomberg).

BUSINESS

The internationalisation of the Portuguese  Modelo Continente supermarket chain to Angola is due to happen this year, the chairman of the Sonae group, Model’s mother company, said (Macauhub).

Edifer Angola increased its turnover in 2009 by 35 percent to US$202 million and posted a net profit of US$22 million, the chairwoman of the Edifer group, Vera Pires Coelho said (Macauhub).

Net profit at Banco Espírito (BES) Angola rose to 152 million euros in 2009, a year on year rise of 86 percent (Macauhub).

ATLANTICO

Brazilian airline Puma Air is due to begin flights to Angola next June or July.
A Boeing 767 will be used on the Recife-Luanda, Angola route,” CEO Gambogi said adding, “we will be the only Brazilian airline with flights to Africa.” As well as Brazilian investors, one of Puma’s shareholders, with 20 percent, is air carrier Angola Air Service.  Puma Air said that there 45,000 Brazilians living in Luanda, a market that is boosted by projects of Brazilian companies such as Petrobras (Macauhub).

Angola news update, March 14th

In Angola, Economy, Hotels, Infrastructure, Investments, Mining, Oil, Telecom, Tourism, Travel on March 14, 2010 at 11:22 am

ECONOMY

Angola’s inflation slowed to 13.66 percent year-on-year in February from 13.83 percent in January, despite a continued rise in food prices, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said (Reuters).

OIL

Angola was China’s top supplier of oil in January, overtaking Saudi Arabia at a time when Chinese oil companies are seeking to consolidate Angolan offshore positions (Macauhub).

BUSINESS

Angola’s Unitel is in the race for a slice of up to 75 percent in Zamtel of Zambia (Reuters).

Danish engineering group FLSmidth has won a five-year contract worth 154 million euros ($209 million) to operate and maintain a cement plant in Angola (Reuters).

Australian mining company Lonrho Mining plans between May and June of this year to order a unit for separation of aggregates by density for its diamond concession in Lulo, Angola (Macauhub).

Portuguese construction company Teixeira Duarte is to build the new National Assembly building in Angola, a project estimated to cost 185 million euros (Macauhub).

TOURISM

Portuguese group Ibersol has requested authorisation from the Angolan authorities to set up Ibersol Angola (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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