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NEWS

Pedro Sapinho has been chosen by TACV Cabo Verde Airlines’ board of directors as the company’s new commercial director, replacing Maria da Luz “Lu” Spencer, who since 2008 had been at the helm of this service, considered crucial to the carrier’s administration. This is the first major change felt at TACV since the new board of directors headed by João Pereira Silva took the reigns of the airline, putting into practice the new commercial strategies outlined by the administration (A Semana).

The funding granted by Japan for water supply and energy projects in Cape Verde is expected to total US$224 million, which is substantially more than the US$88.4 million previously outlined. Japan will provide funding of US$160 million for a water desalination, storage and transport project on the island of Santiago, where over 56 percent of the population lives. Japan also plans to fund another project, worth some US$64 million, to ensure better energy distribution across six islands (Santiago, Sao Vicente, Sal, Fogo, Maio and Santo Antao), international press reported.

BEST RESTAURANT OF CAPE VERDE 2013

Participate in this year’s poll! Nominate your candidates for Best Restaurant of Cape Verde in 2013. Please go to the Best Restaurant page and fill in the form, thank you! Tambem em Portugues!

BEST CAPE VERDE MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Cape Verde and Angolan music, like Cesaria Evora, Tito Paris, Lura, Nancy Vieira, Mayra Andrade, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Cape Verde and Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

ECONOMY

The Bank of Cape Verde has suspended the distribution of dividends to shareholders of the Cape Verde’s banks so they can boost their own capital, local press reported. As well as vulnerabilities detected through stress tests, a high level of loan defaults is present and therefore boosting capital would reduce risks and freeze consumption.

The president of Cape Verde’s National Statistics Institute (INE) has sounded a warning cry, saying that the institution needs to double its number of employees and be given more financial resources in order to be able to produce annual and quarterly accounts without difficulties. The appeal is António Duarte’s response to the recommendations made by the IMF about the lack of real up-to-date GDP data after 2010, as well as the Budget Support Group’s recommendations on the capacities needed to monitor and assess Cape Verde’s economic indicators (A Semana).

A Cape Verde government mission will move to South Africa soon as part of the “re-invigorating” of economic diplomacy between the two coutries, Prime Minister José Maria Neves announced.

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Check out The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands Santiago, Sal, Santo Antao, Boa Vista and Sao Vicente. Agora tambem em Portugues!

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AGORA TAMBEM EM PORTUGUES!

O Grand Tour de Cabo Verde esta a ser traduzido em Portugues! Começamos na Ilha de Santiago e ja seguimos para a Ilha de Sao Vicente e a Ilha de Santo Antao…

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign!

SAL

The Director for Environment and Sanitation of Sal City Council appeals to people to register their dogs, a process that started two weeks ago while putting into practice the Municipal Regulation for Registration and Licensing of Dogs.

SANTIAGO

The theft of energy has caused losses of about 30 percent of all energy produced in Cape Verde, and in some neighborhoods of Praia that figure reaches 80 percent, local press reported.

TOURISM

On June 28, Cidade Velha will host an international colloquium featuring the participation of Cape Verdean, Brazilian and Portuguese specialists, who will analyze the gains and challenges of the municipality of Ribeira Grande de Santiago, which has been visited by some 15,000 tourists so far this year and which may soon begin giving other tourist destinations in the country, such as Boa Vista and Sal, a run for their money. Cidade Velha, considered the cradle of Cape Verdean culture and society, will celebrate four years as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on June 26 (A Semana).

The construction works of the first phase of the Salinas Resort in Salinas area, will begin later this year, as soon as the project is approved by the Technical Office of the City Council of Fogo.

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

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

OPINION

A reaction to a recent piece in The Economist: Can Brazil Conquer Africa’s Booming Markets?

ANGOLA BEYOND OIL & GAS

Check out our first feature story about Angola, an interview with Maria Luisa Abrantes, Director of ANIP, Angola’s Investment Agency: Angola Beyond Oil & Gas

NEWS

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Africa’s second-longest serving ruler, said he’s thought about a transition of power almost 12 months after winning another five-year term. The 70-year-old won a new term at the helm of Africa’s second-largest oil producer in August 2012 in the first national elections to determine a president in 20 years. Manuel Domingos Vicente, the former head of state oil company Sonangol EP, was named vice president (Bloomberg).

Dos Santos also dismissed recent anti-government youth protests, saying the risk of social upheaval in the oil-producing country is inexistent despite a large rich-poor wealth gap (Reuters).

Angola plans to merge agencies for tax collection and customs by 2017 to help reduce its dependence on petroleum, according to an analyst at the London School of Economics. Tariffs on oil will account for about 80 percent of tax revenue this year. The government is integrating its agencies to help boost tax earnings from non-oil industries to 20 percent of gross domestic product within four years from 7.5 percent in 2011 (Bloomberg).

The government of Angola plans to make the central Angolan coastal region comprising the cities of Benguela, Baía Farta, Catumbela and Lobito the country’s second biggest urban population centre, local press reported.

SPLIT SECOND POLL

BEST ANGOLA MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Angolan music, like Waldemar Bastos, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

BUSINESS

Angola is spending $1 billion to revamp three fabric plants that will employ 2,700 people, said the local unit of Marubeni Corp. (8002), Japan’s biggest trader of grains and food products, which is rehabilitating the factories. Reconstruction of the $270 million Textang II facility, which will be able to produce 9 million meters (30 million feet) of fabric annually, may be completed in two months, Bloomberg reported.

MINING

Iron ore exploration at the Cassala/Quitungo mining project, in Angola’s Kwanza Norte province, is due to begin in 2017, with initial production of 6 million tons, local press reported.

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BRAZIL WEEKLY

Check out our sister publication Brazil Weekly, with editions appearing every Friday!

THE RISE OF THE PACS

Meet three booming Portuguese-speaking African Countries.

The rise of the what? Another acronym, you say? Well, why not… In Portuguese the countries are called PALOPs, the Paises Africanos de Lingua Oficial Portuguesa (or African Countries with Portuguese as Official Language). So we call them PACs. Three PACs have become booming economies and nobody is stopping them: Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique. Check it out.

NEWS

South Africa is assessing the costs of rebuilding a fence between the Kruger National Park and Mozambique to deter poachers who’ve killed 350 rhinos this year. A request was received from South African National Parks, or SANParks, to re-erect the boundary (Bloomberg).

BEST MOZAMBIQUE MUSIC & BOOKS

Check out our Atlantico Store, now with an interesting collection of books about Mozambique as well as music from the country, all available through Amazon. Browse our collection here.

ECONOMY

Mozambique’s Gross Domestic Product is expected to grow by an annual average of 6.88 percent between 2012 and 2017, according to projections published recently by the Ernst and Young consultancy.

Mozambique’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point, the first reduction in seven months. The rate was lowered to 9 percent, Bloomberg reported.

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of the new Standard Bank Office for Maputo.

BUSINESS

Nedbank Group’s purchase of an initial 36.4 percent stake in Mozambique’s Banco Unico is expected to be approved by regulators in two to three months, the chief executive of the Mozambican lender said (Reuters).

Actis LLP, a private-equity company, will lead investment of as much as $1.5 billion in African commercial property to meet rising demand from international companies targeting a growing middle class. The company is adding industrial and logistics parks to its African property portfolio in response to a “complete lack” of that kind of infrastructure. The company sees opportunities in key markets such as Mozambique, Zambia, Ghana (Bloomberg).

AGRI ETC

Bananalândia, a company located in the Boane district of the coastal Mozambican province of Maputo, plans to expand into Middle Eastern markets, which will require production to increase. The company, which has been operating in Mozambique since 2002, is consolidating its position as a regional banana supplier, local press reported.

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SPLIT SECOND POLLS

MINING

Encouraging results from the first round of exploration at Coal India’s Mozambique coal blocks have prompted the company to embark on the second round of exploration at an investment of $60 million (The Economic Times).

OIL & GAS

Uncertainty over government policy is keeping Japanese buyers from signing contracts for fuel from the world’s second-largest liquefied natural gas plant planned in Mozambique, according to Anadarko. Buyers from the Asian nation have been reluctant to commit to buying fuel from the African country because of pending Japanese government decisions on nuclear plant restarts and power grid policies that will affect future demand (Bloomberg).

Mozambique’s state-backed petroleum company said it’s not interested in selling its stake in the Rovuma offshore gas field to international producers. Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos, known as ENH, has a 15 percent interest in the Rovuma-1 block, whose reserves are larger than those of Libya, according to Anadarko Petroleum Corp.,the operator of the block (Bloomberg).

Oil & Natural Gas Corp. and Oil India Ltd., India’s biggest state-run explorers, will pay $2.5 billion to buy a stake in a Mozambique natural gas field from Videocon Industries Ltd.. The two Indian explorers will buy Videocon Mozambique Rovuma 1 Ltd., which owns 10 percent in the Rovuma-1 field in the waters off the African nation, ONGC said . The transaction is expected to close in the last quarter of 2013 (Bloomberg).

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NEWS

A new way of engaging in politics and exercising power in Cape Verde is the proposal from Ulisses Correia e Silva, who is the only candidate in the race to succeed Carlos Veiga as chairman of opposition party MpD in direct internal elections on June 16. In the public presentation of his candidacy, the current Praia mayor outlined the path for people-centered “durable development” (A Semana).

Portugal remains available to maintain police technical cooperation with Cape Verde, through the strengthening of border control and training of different police, the Portuguese Minister of Internal Administration said in Praia.

CAPE VERDE FLIGHT GUIDE WINTER 2012/2013

Welcome on Board! Check out Atlantico Weekly’s latest feature, the Cape Verde Flight Guide, with TACV Cape Verde Airlines Winter 2012-13 timetable and an overview of all flights to and from Cape Verde. Coming soon is the 2013 Summer Edition!

BEST RESTAURANT OF CAPE VERDE 2013

Participate in this year’s poll! Nominate your candidates for Best Restaurant of Cape Verde in 2013. Please go to the Best Restaurant page and fill in the form, thank you! Tambem em Portugues!

BEST CAPE VERDE MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Cape Verde and Angolan music, like Cesaria Evora, Tito Paris, Lura, Nancy Vieira, Mayra Andrade, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Cape Verde and Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

ECONOMY

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzu Abe announced the Japanese government’s support for various projects in areas crucial to development, such as water, energy and the sea cluster, during a bilateral meeting with Cape Verdean Prime Minister José Maria Neves. The aid in question amounts to more than US$ 60 million, A Semana reported.

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Check out The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands Santiago, Sal, Santo Antao, Boa Vista and Sao Vicente. Agora tambem em Portugues!

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AGORA TAMBEM EM PORTUGUES!

O Grand Tour de Cabo Verde esta a ser traduzido em Portugues! Começamos na Ilha de Santiago e ja seguimos para a Ilha de Sao Vicente e a Ilha de Santo Antao…

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign!

BUSINESS

Novo Banco will this year open new service counters on the islands of Sal and Boa Vista within the framework of its expansion policy and diversification of products. local press reported.

SANTIAGO

A group of Praia residents led is organizing a protest the introduction of parking meters in the city’s central historic district of Plateau, A Semana reported.

SAO VICENTE

Island Seafoods, a Norwegian funded company, is expected to start construction of a fishing dock in Mindelo in the final quarter of 2013, A Semana reported. The project will take an estimated 18 months to build. At the end of construction the facility will include a fishing dock with equipment for pumping fish directly from boats into the factory, with capacity to unload 50 tons of fish per hour. The future dock will be located in the Cova d’Inglesa area, just 25 metres from the current fishing complex and will occupy an area of 20,000 square metres, 11,000 of which on shore. Island Seafoods plans to invest 72 million euros in infrastructure and equipment using funding from the Norwegian government.

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

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

OPINION

Our latest opinion article is a reaction to a recent piece in The Economist: Can Brazil Conquer Africa’s Booming Markets?

THE RISE OF THE PACS

Meet three booming Portuguese-speaking African Countries.

The rise of the what? Another acronym, you say? Well, why not… In Portuguese the countries are called PALOPs, the Paises Africanos de Lingua Oficial Portuguesa (or African Countries with Portuguese as Official Language). So we call them PACs. Three PACs have become booming economies and nobody is stopping them: Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique. Check it out.

ANGOLA BEYOND OIL & GAS

Check out our first feature story about Angola, an interview with Maria Luisa Abrantes, Director of ANIP, Angola’s Investment Agency: Angola Beyond Oil & Gas

NEWS

Angola, exhibiting for the first time at the Venice Biennale, has been awarded the prestigious Golden Lion for the best national pavilion (Mail & Guardian).

Sea turtles are swimming in larger numbers off the coast of Angola after a conservation program educated fishermen about the endangered species. The $200,000-a-year Kitabanga Project over the past decade has protected about 9,000 nests, Bloomberg reported.

Angola plans this year to put forward a report to allow it to extend its continental platform to beyond 200 nautical miles, based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), local press reported.

ECONOMY

Angola has enough foreign reserves to cover almost eight months of imports the country’s Economy Minister said. Abraão Gourgel said that at the end of 2009, at the height of the world financial crisis, foreign reserves totalled US$19 billion, and last April stood at US$35 billion, which is the equivalent of around 30 percent of Angola’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Macauhub reported.

SPLIT SECOND POLL

BEST ANGOLA MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Angolan music, like Waldemar Bastos, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of the SHopping Fortaleza, currently under construction near Luanda’s fortress.

BUSINESS

The sale of Portugal’s Escom, which is active in Angola’s diamond sector, to Angolan state investors is in its final stages, more than two years after an initial agreement was reached, an international newsletter reported. Escom’s buyer may be the sovereign fund itself, either directly or through a subsidiary company.

Two four star hotels will be inaugurated in August in Lubango City, southern Huíla Province, ANGOP reported. The hotels are Chick-Chick, with 115 rooms and 221 beds, and one out of the three being financed by the “AAA” insurance company, which is being building in Lubango City, with 180 rooms.

AGRI ETC.

Angola, the world’s third-largest coffee producer before independence from Portugal in 1975, will produce the same amount of beans this year as in 2012 after a drought restrained output, the National Coffee Institute said. The southwest African nation may produce 15,000 metric tons, Casimiro Cardoso, deputy director of the institute, said according to Bloomberg.

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OIL & GAS

Angola’s long-delayed liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant has finally started production and the first cargo is due to be exported later this month, a senior Total executive said (Reuters).

Rates to ship liquefied natural gas will benefit from the startup of the Angola
LNG export facility as vessels dedicated to the project stop competing for spot
cargoes, Bloomberg reported.

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BRAZIL WEEKLY

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NEWS

Japan signed an investment agreement with Mozambique, its first with a country in sub-Saharan Africa, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The accord details rules for promoting and liberalizing bilateral investment, as well as for compensation in the case of expropriation. Mozambique boasts one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves and Africa’s largest coking coal reserves, the ministry said in its statement (Bloomberg).

Hundreds of Mozambique health workers wearing face masks marched through the streets of the capital as their strike for higher salaries extended into a third week (News24).

BEST MOZAMBIQUE MUSIC & BOOKS

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BUSINESS

Sky-high rents are a nasty surprise for expatriates coming to live in Mozambique’s capital, which has become one of Africa’s most expensive cities. Companies drawn by the country’s hydrocarbon resources are prepared to pay through the nose and some properties now fetch more than R100,000 a month, BusinessDay reports.

AGRI ETC.

While Japan advocated investment and private sector-led growth in Africa at the big aid conference this weekend, concern mounted among citizens’ groups that an agriculture project in Mozambique that Tokyo is pushing as one of its key projects in Africa, may end up depriving local farmers of their land. The program, dubbed ProSavana, which is promoted by the Japanese, Brazilian and Mozambican governments, is about developing a vast area of intact savanna in northern Mozambique, encompassing more than 10 million hectares of land in three provinces (Japan Times).

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SPLIT SECOND POLLS

MINING

Coal India is considering ceding two coal blocks in Mozambique due to a lack of infrastructure. The world’s biggest coal company by output has been scouting for overseas assets over the past three years to work around mine startup delays in India. A decision to quit Mozambique would crimp plans to jump-start its output growth through acquisitions abroad (Wall Street Journal).

Australian mining company Syrah Resources has raised its estimates of graphite deposits in the Balama mining project in Mozambique to 117 million tons, along with 2.7 million tones of vanadium pentoxide, international press reported.

PORTS & INFRA

South Africa and Mozambique have signed a memorandum of understanding, which will result in their ports collaborating in business. The memorandum opens up collaboration on matters of common interest in areas of infrastructure development, engineering, training and marine services. The memorandum was signed between the TNPA and the Maputo Ports Development Company (MPDC) (News24).

The Mozambican state rail and port company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Mozambique (CFM) has launched a public tender for the reconstruction of two railway bridges on the Ressano Garcia line, which links the south of Mozambique to South Africa (Mining Review).

OIL & GAS

Mozambique’s state-backed petroleum company is considering selling a stake valued at about $2 billion in the Rovuma offshore gas field as the country seeks to bolster public finances, Bloomberg reported.

How much revenue will Mozambique get from natural gas in the Rovuma Basin? Some say as much as $4-5 billion annually by the mid-2020s. But the producers of these projections, the Gas Master Plan and the IMF, are now backtracking. Realistic assumptions on the tim¬ing of first exports and pace of development suggest only about $1.2 billion in 2026. And many additional deductions that will reduce company payments have yet to be taken into account, the Mozambique Public Integrity Centre reports.

India’s biggest oil and gas exploration company, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), has said it can go alone for the $5-6 billion acquisition of a 20% stake in the Rovuma basin gas block in Mozambique and it was not in talks with any global major to share the cost of acquisition as funds were not a constraint (Hindustan Times).

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NEWS

Current Praia mayor Ulisses Correia e Silva formalized his candidacy for chairman of opposition party MpD. There are no apparent rivals for the leadership of the MpD.

The Cape Verde Islands off the coast of western Africa are well-known to hurricane scientists because that’s a region where a number of tropical cyclones form during the Atlantic hurricane season. NASA’s multi-year Hurricane and Severe Storms Sentinel, or HS3, mission may explore tropical cyclones of Cape Verde origins when it takes to the skies again this August (NASA).

A group of descendants of Cape Verde’s small but influential Jewish community are traveling to the West African archipelago to honor the memory of their ancestors and their unique heritage. They will re-dedicate the long-neglected Jewish burial plot within the Varzea municipal cemetery in the islands’ capital Praia that has been restored with financial help from Morocco’s King Mohammed VI (Eurasian Review).

CAPE VERDE FLIGHT GUIDE WINTER 2012/2013

Welcome on Board! Check out Atlantico Weekly’s latest feature, the Cape Verde Flight Guide, with TACV Cape Verde Airlines Winter 2012-13 timetable and an overview of all flights to and from Cape Verde. Coming soon is the 2013 Summer Edition!

BEST RESTAURANT OF CAPE VERDE 2013

Participate in this year’s poll! Nominate your candidates for Best Restaurant of Cape Verde in 2013. Please go to the Best Restaurant page and fill in the form, thank you! Tambem em Portugues!

BEST CAPE VERDE MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Cape Verde and Angolan music, like Cesaria Evora, Tito Paris, Lura, Nancy Vieira, Mayra Andrade, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Cape Verde and Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

ECONOMY

Financing rating agency Fitch classifies Cape Verde as a “fiscally constrained” country, A Semana reported. In a report on the sovereign debt of Sub-Saharan African countries, the agency recommends the application of directed reforms if these countries want to gradually improve their ratings.

Economic activities in Cape Verde are expected to continue slowing down in 2013, a year in which average annual inflation is expected to total between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent, the Bank of Cape Verde said.

The banking sector in Cape Verde has witnessed significant growth in the last decade. It has largely escaped the financial and banking crisis so far, reflecting fairly sound supervision. Over the years there have been improvements in product and service offerings, taking Cape Verde into the forefront of high-tech banking practices, including mobile banking. Nonetheless, the sector needs to become more competitive and increase its contribution to economic growth (Afribiz).

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Check out The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands Santiago, Sal, Santo Antao, Boa Vista and Sao Vicente. Agora tambem em Portugues!

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AGORA TAMBEM EM PORTUGUES!

O Grand Tour de Cabo Verde esta a ser traduzido em Portugues! Começamos na Ilha de Santiago e ja seguimos para a Ilha de Sao Vicente e a Ilha de Santo Antao…

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign!

TOURISM

The number of guests in hotel establishments of the country increased by 18.5% in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period of 2012. Overnight stays increased 7.6% and Sal took first place. The UK was the main country of origin of tourists. Tourists from South Africa were the ones who stayed longest in Cape Verde, with an average stay of 10.1 nights. The island of Boa Vista was the most sought after by tourists, representing approximately 39.7% of the entries in hotel establishments (pdf).

Cape Verde a friendly, picturesque destination. Read the report in the Gazette.

BOA VISTA

From December 2015 Boa Vista Island will count two more resorts, a four star and a five star one. The Decameron Group will construct more than 1000 rooms to receive tourists from all over the planet. The investment total of both resorts, which will arise in the Chaves Tourism Planning Zone will be around 138 million euros

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

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

Angolan Ambassador in Ankara Jose Guerreiro Alves Primo said they have opened an embassy in Turkey to add content in bilateral relations, and they would soon lift visas with Turkey (World Bulletin).

ECONOMY

Angola plans to open its much-delayed stock market in 2016 and could even bring it forward to 2015 if the bourse was used to privatise state-owned companies, the country’s Capital Markets Commission (CMC) said, according to Reuters.

The central bank of Angola kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a fourth month. The key lending rate was left at 10 percent, Bloomberg reported.

Angola was the seventh-largest destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa and the third largest destination in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report from the Ernst & Young consultancy analysing capital flows into Africa since 2003.

SPLIT SECOND POLL

BEST ANGOLA MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Angolan music, like Waldemar Bastos, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

BUSINESS

A group of Angolan investors is interested in buying a stake in Portuguese builder Soares da Costa, Bloomberg reported.

The deep water port that will be built in northern Cabinda province will affirm the country’s sovereignty over the territorial waters of the Zaire river, through the permanent presence of vessels of the coastline network services in the region, Allafrica reported.

Angola’s Tourism Development Programme foresees than within 10 years the country will receive 4.6 million visitors per year and that 1 million new jobs will be created in the industry, the secretary of state for Hotels and Tourism said to the press.

The Angolan Economy Minister has laid the first stone for construction of the business incubator of the National Institute to Support Small and Medium-Sized Companies in Angola, local press reported. The facility will be built in the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Area in five months and will operate at as workshop to prepare inexperienced businesspeople with technical and professional training over a period of two years.

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OIL & GAS

Sonangol Pesquisa & Producao SA, the Angolan oil company adding exploration assets to boost output, plans to buy a stake in an offshore block from the country’s vice president. Sonangol will purchase 15 percent of Block 21-09 from Nazaki Oil & Gaz SA, a company held by Vice President Manuel Vicente and two senior generals, according to a Feb. 28 decree allowing the sale and seen by Bloomberg.

Sonangol EP is raising a $2.5 billion loan arranged by Standard Chartered Plc, Bloomberg reported.

Total, France’s largest oil producer, is selling a stake in an exploration block off Angola to state petroleum company Sonangol Pesquisa e Producao SA as part of an asset-disposal program. Total will sell a 15 percent holding in the 15-06 zone operated by Eni, according to Bloomberg. While the block isn’t producing, the development of discoveries located in its northwest began early last year.

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NEWS

Reconstruction of the Cuamba-Lichinga road, in Mozambique is due to begin in 2014, as the necessary funds have been secured, local press reported. Also, the African Development Fund has provided a loan of US$50 million to finance the second phase of the project to repair the Nacala Corridor, which will build reliable and efficient infrastructure in that region of northern Mozambique.

OPINION

Our latest opinion article is a reaction to a recent piece in The Economist: Can Brazil Conquer Africa’s Booming Markets?

THE RISE OF THE PACS

Meet three booming Portuguese-speaking African Countries.

The rise of the what? Another acronym, you say? Well, why not… In Portuguese the countries are called PALOPs, the Paises Africanos de Lingua Oficial Portuguesa (or African Countries with Portuguese as Official Language). So we call them PACs. Three PACs have become booming economies and nobody is stopping them: Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique. Check it out.

BEST MOZAMBIQUE MUSIC & BOOKS

Check out our Atlantico Store, now with an interesting collection of books about Mozambique as well as music from the country, all available through Amazon. Browse our collection here.

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of the Edificio Jacaranda, a 16-floor residential building for Maputo.

BUSINESS

French catering company CIS announced it has signed a $50 million contact with the Brazilian mining giant Vale to provide services in northern Mozambique. The three year contract includes the construction a kitchen and restaurant with seating for six hundred people at Nacala-a-Velha in the northern province of Nampula. It is here that Vale is creating a new port terminal to export the huge amounts of coal that the company is mining in its concession in western Mozambique (AllAfrica).

A Chinese-owned company operating in Angoche, Nampula province, plans to spend US$20 million to boost its fishing fleet from eight to 20 vessels, local press reported. The investment will include construction of new facilities and acquisition of new units for conserving fish.

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BRAZIL WEEKLY

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CAPE VERDE FLIGHT GUIDE WINTER 2012/2013

Welcome on Board! Check out Atlantico Weekly’s latest feature, the Cape Verde Flight Guide, with TACV Cape Verde Airlines Winter 2012-13 timetable and an overview of all flights to and from Cape Verde. Coming soon is the 2013 Summer Edition!

BEST RESTAURANT OF CAPE VERDE 2013

Participate in this year’s poll! Nominate your candidates for Best Restaurant of Cape Verde in 2013. Please go to the Best Restaurant page and fill in the form, thank you! Tambem em Portugues!

BEST CAPE VERDE MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Cape Verde and Angolan music, like Cesaria Evora, Tito Paris, Lura, Nancy Vieira, Mayra Andrade, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Cape Verde and Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

ECONOMY

Projections from the Bank of Cape Verde (BCV) point to continued loss of momentum in economic activity in 2013 and average annual inflation in therange of 2.5 – 3.5 percent, local press reported.

Imports, exports and re-exports saw negative evolution in the first quarter of 2013, according to provisional foreign trade data from the National Statistics Institute (INE). During the same period, the deficit in the balance of trade dropped 13.1% and the coverage rate improved 0.4 percentage points, A Semana reported.

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

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DEFENSE

China plans to donate US$50 million to Cape Verde to acquire two patrol ships for the Coast Guard and for the construction of a uniform production unit for the Armed Forces, local press reported.

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign!

TOURISM

US group Viceroy Hotels & Resorts plans to open a hotel in Cape Verde in 2017, the Viceroy Cape Verde on the island of Santiago. The future hotel, which will be in the Sambala community, an urban development area a few minutes form Praia, will have 130 rooms, three restaurants, a kids’ club and the usual customer support facilities, international press reported.

SPLIT SECOND POLL

SANTIAGO

The historic nucleus of the city of Praia is now a National Heritage Site, A Semana reported. The classification, published in the May 17 edition of the Official State Bulletin, refers to the district, known as Plateau, as a “relevant historic and cultural site” whose legacy is worth preserving for future generations. But the main objective for the future is obtain the status of World Heritage Site for the neighborhood – so far, nearby Cidade Velha is the only World Heritage Site recognized by UNESCO.

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

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

Meet three booming Portuguese-speaking African Countries.

The rise of the what? Another acronym, you say? Well, why not… In Portuguese the countries are called PALOPs, the Paises Africanos de Lingua Oficial Portuguesa (or African Countries with Portuguese as Official Language). So we call them PACs. Three PACs have become booming economies and nobody is stopping them: Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique. Check it out.

SPLIT SECOND POLL

BEST ANGOLA MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Angolan music, like Waldemar Bastos, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

BUSINESS

Land is the most attractive asset of state companies being sold by Angola, Banco Angolano de Investimentos SA Executive Director Joao Fonseca said. The southwest African country plans to sell about 30 companies that are mostly inactive and date from when the formerly Marxist state was fighting a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002. A ministry list includes agricultural mills, textile manufacturers, builders and a hotel (Bloomberg).

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

The Pestana hotel group’s project in Luanda, the Pestana Bay Luanda, which includes a hotel, housing, offices and shops, will cost US$280 million and is due to be concluded in 2017.

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OIL & GAS

Angola will boost crude exports for July to 53 cargoes, according to a preliminary loading plan obtained by Bloomberg News. This will total 50.9 million barrels, or 1.64 million barrels a day, compared with 49 million barrels, or 1.63 million barrels a day in June.

Eltel Networks Te AB, a Swedish power-transmission provider, said it will electrify an $8 billion refinery project in Angola. The company plans to switch on a 250-kilometer (155-mile) transmission line in October, linking the Cambambe hydroelectric dam with the 200,000-barrel-a-day plant under construction near Lobito. The $130 million, 220-kilovolt line will be the first to connect the country’s north and center (Bloomberg).

Workers in Angola are completing construction of the strongest crane in Africa that will be used at offshore projects for Chevron Corp., Total SA, and SBM Offshore NV. The fabrication yard of Paenal Porto Amboim Estaleiros Navais at Porto Aboim, about 260 kilometers (162 miles) south of the capital, Luanda, is expected to complete the crane with a capacity to lift 2,500 metric tons next month, Bloomberg reported.

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BRAZIL WEEKLY

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NEWS

National Geographic covers the rebirth of Gorongosa National Park.

OPINION

Our latest opinion article is a reaction to a recent piece in The Economist: Can Brazil Conquer Africa’s Booming Markets?

BEST MOZAMBIQUE MUSIC & BOOKS

Check out our Atlantico Store, now with an interesting collection of books about Mozambique as well as music from the country, all available through Amazon. Browse our collection here.

ECONOMY

Mozambique’s economic growth, which is already high due to new coal mining and natural gas projects, may be given further impetus over the next few years through agricultural investments of US$3.8 billion, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Macauhub reported.

BUSINESS

Check out the Mozambique real estate snapshot 2013 at Afribiz.

China Africa Cotton last week laid the first stone of the cotton ginning factory in Subué, in Mozambique’s Sofala province, according to Mozambican press. The new industrial unit, which will cost US$6 million, will have capacity to process 30,000 tons of raw cotton and produce 3,000 litres of cooking oil per year.

A factory to manufacture iron and steel products is due to be built in Mozambique at the Beluluane Industrial Park, in the Boane district of Maputo. The project would initially cost US$100 million and construction of the steel plant will drive the establishment of new or boost existing small and medium sized companies that supply goods and services, local press reported.

AVIATION

Mozambique and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last week in Dubai signed a two-way air transport service agreement, local press reported. The agreement has designated five airlines including Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways and Rakairways to fly between the two countries.

BANKING & FINANCE

Portuguese bank Banco Espírito Santo now owns 44 percent of the capital of Mozambique’s Moza Banco after acquiring an 18.9 percent stake in the bank, the BES group said in a regulatory filing.

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MINING

Mozambique is due to be formally admitted into the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) during the organisation’s next conference to be held in Sydney this week. local press reported.

Human Rights Watch accused Mozambique’s government and foreign mining companies of “serious shortcomings” in resettling communities to make way for coal mines, leaving thousands without proper homes, food or sources of income. In a report on the social impact of a mining boom in the war-scarred southern African country, the New York-based group noted the plight of more than 2,000 families displaced to make way for multi-billion dollar coal mines run by Vale and Rio Tinto, Reuters reported.

Vale’s vale of tears in Mozambique. Labor disruptions, flooding and infrastructure problems will mean a substantial reduction in coal exports (Money).

Chinese group Kingho plans to invest in coal mining in Mozambique, building a second port in the city of Beira and a railway linking it to Moatize, in Tete province, Macauhub reported.

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OIL & GAS

Price expectations for a stake in Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s, Mozambique gas project are too high, Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s chief financial officer, Simon Henry, said. “You could have said that a year ago and not much has changed,” he told reporters after the company’s annual general meeting. Shell has been in talks with Anadarko to acquire a stake in the massive gas opportunities in Mozambique (Nasdaq).

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

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CAPE VERDE FLIGHT GUIDE WINTER 2012/2013

Welcome on Board! Check out Atlantico Weekly’s latest feature, the Cape Verde Flight Guide, with TACV Cape Verde Airlines Winter 2012-13 timetable and an overview of all flights to and from Cape Verde. Coming soon is the 2013 Summer Edition!

BEST RESTAURANT OF CAPE VERDE 2013

Participate in this year’s poll! Nominate your candidates for Best Restaurant of Cape Verde in 2013. Please go to the Best Restaurant page and fill in the form, thank you! Tambem em Portugues!

BEST CAPE VERDE MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Cape Verde and Angolan music, like Cesaria Evora, Tito Paris, Lura, Nancy Vieira, Mayra Andrade, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Cape Verde and Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

ECONOMY

The regulations for Cape Verde’s Centro Internacional de Negócios or International Business Center, will be opreational from August 2013, A Semana reported. The Centro Internacional de Negócios, a tax benefit system for international business, was approved in 2010, but its rules, that have too be internationally acceptable, have so far not yet been approved by the cabinet.

In April 2013 the rate of change of the CPI was 2.3%, up 0.3 % over the figure recorded in the previous month. The monthly variation observed between March and April of 2013 was positive (0.2%), higher by 0.7 pp to the previous month. The average of the last twelve months was 2.9%, higher than the previous month by 0.1 % (INE).

The Brazilian National Service for Industrial Training (Senai) is to support Cape Verde in defining a model of self-sustainable financing for job and professional training centres, Minister Janira Hopffer Almada said according to local press.

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Check out The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands Santiago, Sal, Santo Antao, Boa Vista and Sao Vicente. Agora tambem em Portugues!

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AGORA TAMBEM EM PORTUGUES!

O Grand Tour de Cabo Verde esta a ser traduzido em Portugues! Começamos na Ilha de Santiago e ja seguimos para a Ilha de Sao Vicente e a Ilha de Santo Antao…

AVIATION

TACV is planning to start flying twice a week to Fortaleza, Brazil, as of 9 July. TACV currently offers one flight between the Fortaleza and Praia, every Thursday. A flight will now also be offered on Tuesdays between Fortaleza and Sal Island.

Cape Verde’s airport management company Empresa Nacional de Aeroportos e Segurança Aérea (ASA) plans to spend 1.8 billion Cape Verdean escudos (17 million euros) to expand and modernise the archipelago’s airports. Amílcar Cabral International Airport on Sal Island, will reorganise its passenger terminal, expanding the international departure and arrivals areas, increasing the retail area and creating new areas for border and customs services. Aristides Pereira International Airport on Boa Vista Island, which was opened in 2008, and “exceeded all” expectations in terms of traffic, will have its passenger terminal doubled among other things.

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign!

TOURISM

Five commercial banks operating in Cape Verde have formed a consortium in order to finance partof the construction of the Sal Hilton Hotel for 19 million Euros: Banco Comercial do Atlântico, Caixa Económica, Banco Espírito Santo, Banco Interatlântico e Ecobank. Construction of the country’s first Hilton is now set for October 2013 and the hotel should be ready in 2015.

SANTIAGO

The first appartments from the social housing project “Casa para Todos” for Praia will be ready this month:  140 appartments in Palmarejo Grande and 125 in Achada Grande Trás. Works are underway in other parts of the capital too, like in Tira Chapéu, Terra Branca, Ponta d’Água and São Pedro Latada, resulting in a grand total of 2100 new homes. The national social housing programme is well under way in the whole country and will bring no less than 8500 new housing units (picture and info from A Semana).

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

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

Meet three booming Portuguese-speaking African Countries.

The rise of the what? Another acronym, you say? Well, why not… In Portuguese the countries are called PALOPs, the Paises Africanos de Lingua Oficial Portuguesa (or African Countries with Portuguese as Official Language). So we call them PACs. Three PACs have become booming economies and nobody is stopping them: Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique. Check it out.

NEWS

Angola set up an emergency plan for the southern province of Cunene, where an estimated 300,000 people are at risk of malnutrition because of a two-year-long drought (Reuters).

ECONOMY

Angola plans to use loan guarantees and investment to create thousands of companies and jobs, Minister of the Economy Abrahao Gourgel said. Part of the $435 million plan called Angola Invests is to start or help 9,000 companies and generate 300,000 jobs to cut unemployment from a government-estimated 20 percent (Bloomberg).

Angola also plans to sell about 33 state-owned companies over the next five years to increase efficiency and cut costs, Economy Minister Abrahao Gourgel said. The formerly Marxist country has about 90 government-run businesses, from newspapers to diamond producers. Companies on the block are mostly small- and medium-sized, including Bricomil SARL, a construction company owned by the state through Sonangol, two government banks and the national insurer, Ensa Seguros de Angola SA (Bloomberg).

Angola also plans to increase customs tariffs to protect local business while eliminating duties on supplies for industry. The new code, which may be implemented in the next six months, will raise import taxes on items such as beer, water, soft drinks, agricultural products and livestock to 50 percent from as high as 30 percent, Bloomberg reported.

Angola’s consumer inflation slowed to 9 percent year-on-year in April from 9.11 percent in March, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said.

China and Portugal are becoming increasingly important for trade relations with Angola, whilst the United States and France are losing ground in the country’s balance of trade, according to Angolan figures cited by Portuguese bank BPI, Macauhub reported.

BEST ANGOLA MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Angolan music, like Waldemar Bastos, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

BANKING & FINANCE

Nigeria’s UBA, United Bank of Africa, which has operations in 22 countries, plans to increase income from units outside Nigeria to 40 percent in the next two to three years from 20 percent last year. The lender may open in Angola this year if regulators there approve, Bloomberg reported.

Standard Chartered Plc, the U.K. lender, has applied for a banking license in Angola and may do the same in Mozambique as it seeks to increase revenue from Africa. Standard Chartered already has a representative office in Angola and has set up a joint venture with a state-owned insurance company, Bloomberg reported.

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OIL & GAS

Three Angolan crude cargoes for loading in June, out of 51 lots scheduled for export in that month, haven’t been sold, according to Bloomberg.

Angola’s hopes of becoming this year’s only major new liquefied natural gas supplier suffered another setback in April after fire occurred at its plant just hours before production was to begin. This could further delay the troubled project, which is seen as key to relieving a global shortage of the fuel and could help push global LNG prices back towards record highs, Reuters reported.

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BRAZIL WEEKLY

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NEWS

On a state visit to China, the President of Mozambique met with officials, businesspeople and banks in order to raise funds for around 100 projects. Mozambican press reported that half of the US$10 billion needed had been secured from the Chinese government and Chinese banks and companies, in the form of donations and subsidized loans. The US$10 billion will make it possible to build and repair roads, including construction of the Maputo ring road and repairs on the road linking Beira to the town of Machipanda, on the border with Zimbabwe, which will cost US$417 million, as well as the roads between Bene, Fingoé and Zumbo (US$278 million) and between Cuamba and Marrupa (US$184 million).

OPINION

Our latest opinion article is a reaction to a recent piece in The Economist: Can Brazil Conquer Africa’s Booming Markets?

BEST MOZAMBIQUE MUSIC & BOOKS

Check out our Atlantico Store, now with an interesting collection of books about Mozambique as well as music from the country, all available through Amazon. Browse our collection here.

ECONOMY

Mozambique’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 9.5 percent for a sixth straight month (Bloomberg).

BUSINESS

Shares of London-based SABMiller have rallied about 60 percent since November 2011, when it launched its first cassava-based beer, Impala, in Mozambique. Impala now accounts for over 5 percent of Cerveceria de Mocambique’s volume (Bloomberg).

South African group Aveng plans to invest US$18 million in construction of a railway sleeper factory in Mozambique’s Tete province. The factory would have capacity to produce 130,000 tons of sleepers per year and would provide 1,000 jobs in the future, Macauhub reported.

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Twin towers for Maputo! Construction is apparently starting in 2013. The project will consist of two 50-floor towers, one with 250 appartments, the other with offices and a five star hotel.

BANKING & FINANCE

Standard Chartered wants to open its first branch in Mozambique next year, part of an aggressive expansion campaign that will help double revenues from its African business over the next five years, Reuters reported.

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MINING

The main rail route for moving Mozambique’s coal to port from mines owned by Vale and Rio Tinto, reopened just two days after being blocked by protests, Vale said. The stoppage on the Sena line highlighted resentment against mining companies from locals who may live on less than $400 a year and want to see a larger share from the natural resources boom (Reuters).

Rio Tinto Group said it will cut at least 70 jobs in Mozambique after booking an operational loss in the nation last year. The planned redundancies include 50 local posts and 20 expatriate roles covering mining support to operations such as exploration and research, Bloomberg reported.

A first ship carrying the first 36,000 tons of coal mined by Indian-owned company JSPL Mozambique Minerais left the port of Beira in Mozambique heading for India, local press reported. JSPL Mozambique, owned by Jindal, said that the target set for this year was to export 1 million tons of coking and thermal coal.

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OIL & GAS

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. may have an agreement in the coming weeks to sell a stake in a drilling prospect off the coast of Mozambique, Bloomberg reported.

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

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CAPE VERDE FLIGHT GUIDE WINTER 2012/2013

Welcome on Board! Check out Atlantico Weekly’s latest feature, the Cape Verde Flight Guide, with TACV Cape Verde Airlines Winter 2012-13 timetable and an overview of all flights to and from Cape Verde. Coming soon is the 2013 Summer Edition!

BEST RESTAURANT OF CAPE VERDE 2013

Participate in this year’s poll! Nominate your candidates for Best Restaurant of Cape Verde in 2013. Please go to the Best Restaurant page and fill in the form, thank you! Tambem em Portugues!

BEST CAPE VERDE MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Cape Verde and Angolan music, like Cesaria Evora, Tito Paris, Lura, Nancy Vieira, Mayra Andrade, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Cape Verde and Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

ECONOMY

Germany plans to invest in renewable energy in Cape Verde. The initiative is part of the Cape Verde government programme that aims to increase renewable energy in its overall electricity production, which currently stands at around 30 percent, a project with an estimated cost of 1.2 billion euros.

Exports from the Brazilian state of Ceará to Cape Verde fell from US$10.6 million to US$965,000 between 2008 and 2012, according to figures from the International Business Centre (CIN/CE) of the Federation of Industries of the State of Ceará (Fiec). Brazilian newspaper Diário do Nordeste reported that according to CIN/CE the drop in trade is due to logistics problems between the two markets and businesspeople from Ceará and Cape Verde calling for the launch of a sea link, Macauhub reported.

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Check out The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands Santiago, Sal, Santo Antao, Boa Vista and Sao Vicente. Agora tambem em Portugues!

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AGORA TAMBEM EM PORTUGUES!

O Grand Tour de Cabo Verde esta a ser traduzido em Portugues! Começamos na Ilha de Santiago e ja seguimos para a Ilha de Sao Vicente e a Ilha de Santo Antao…

CULTURE

A group of international specialists has released a study that concludes that Cape Verde’s population “presents unique characteristics because it has an absolutely extraordinary level of miscegenation between Africans and Europeans.” An article with the results of the research has just been published in the scientific journal PLoS Genetics (A Semana).

AGRI ETC.

The Minister of Rural Development, Eva Ortet, promissed to support farmers on Sal with installing greenhouses and plots with drip system in order to transform agriculture on the island.

Nearly five thousand people from across Santo Antao island visited the third edition of “kmida di terra” (an event dedicated to traditional food) in the eastern part of the island.

AVIATION

TAP Air Portugal has now confirmed it will start flying between Lisbon and Boa Vista Island twice a week from November 2013.

INFRA

Work for the second phase of expansion and modernisation of the port of Praia will be concluded this year, international press reported. This work, which is expected to cost 72 million euros is being carried out by a consortium of Portuguese companies Somague, MSF and Etermar. The second phase covers refurbishment of the existing dock, construction of a protective mantle for the container park and a 234 metre-long breakwater, as well extending the number one dock to around 450 metres in order to allow two container ships to manoeuvre at the same time as fuel tankers are moored at the end of the dock. Dredging of the manoeuvre basin and installation of a navigational support system, as well as construction of the container park, are also part of the work now contracted.

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign!

TOURISM

The Cape Verde government has added a further two gaming and gambling areas, on the islands of Boa Vista and Maio, to the three areas initially planned for the islands of Sal, Santiago and Sao Vicente, A Semana reported.

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

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

Meet three booming Portuguese-speaking African Countries. The rise of the what? Another acronym, you say? Well, why not… In Portuguese the countries are called PALOPs, the Paises Africanos de Lingua Oficial Portuguesa (or African Countries with Portuguese as Official Language). So we call them PACs. Three PACs have become booming economies and nobody is stopping them: Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique. Check it out.

NEWS

The appointment of Armando Manuel as Angola’s finance minister boosts the legitimacy of the southern African nation’s $5 billion sovereign wealth fund, Markus Weimer of Control Risks Group said according to Bloomberg. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos replaced Finance Minister Carlos Alberto Lopes yesterday in a cabinet shuffle and appointed Waldemar Pires Alexandre construction minister.

Angola plans to simplify taxation and more than double revenue from sources other than petroleum to curb the government’s reliance on crude. The target is to pass three tax codes this year that will cut fees and modernize laws, some which date from 1948, Gilberto Luther, director of the reform project, said in an interview on April 29 in Luanda, the capital. The changes will increase receipts from industries including manufacturing and retail to about 20 percent of gross domestic product by 2017 from 8 percent in 2011, he said. In Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude producer, non-oil tax was 6.3 percent of GDP in 2011 (Bloomberg).

General Electric (GE) plans to build locomotives for Angola and Mozambique in South Africa, a move that will see the company extending its existing relationship with Transnet Engineering (TE), BusinessDay reported.

ECONOMY

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Angola’s Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at ‘BB-’ with a Positive Outlook. Fitch has also affirmed the Country Ceiling at ‘BB-’ and the Short-term IDR at ‘B’.

The Angolan economy will continue to post robust growth over the next few years, with expected average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.1 percent in the 2013-2017 period, the secretary of State for the Economy said to the local press.

Angolan trade with China in the first quarter of 2013 rose 2.7 percent to US$8.85 billion, with Chinese exports rising 26.51 percent to US$858.4 million and imports from China increasing 0.21 percent to US$7.99 billion, the Angolan press reported.

BEST ANGOLA MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Angolan music, like Waldemar Bastos, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

BANKING & FINANCE

Angola has introduced tougher regulations for banks on ownership disclosure, auditing and risk management, responding to international calls for increased transparency and supervision in the oil-rich country’s booming financial sector. Under the wide-ranging new corporate governance code, banks will have to publish information about their shareholding structures, including details about who owns direct and indirect stakes. Rights groups have criticised opaqueness in a system in which large stakes are owned by secretive offshore companies. If an Angolan bank opts to have non-executive directors on its board, it must also appoint an executive board to handle day-to-day management in a transparent and responsible manner and one independent board member to oversee it (Reuters).

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OIL & GAS

US oil group Chevron plans to increase its investments in oil production in Angola over the next five years to US$1 billion. The investment would lead to production of 600,000 barrels of oil per day. The company expects to increase its production in 2015 when it will launch exploration at the Mafumeira Sul project, with capacity to produce 110,000 barrels of oil per day, Angolan press reported.

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BRAZIL WEEKLY

Check out our sister publication Brazil Weekly, with editions appearing every Friday!

NEWS

Mozambique’s main opposition party called for international mediation in talks with the government to resolve a political crisis after a series of attacks in which eight people died last month (Bloomberg).

Indian companies have been unable to keep up with the rate at which their Chinese counterparts are setting themselves up in Mozambique, a country whose mining resources are piquing the interest of international powerhouses, according to researcher Loro Horta. Read about the elephant that stumbles in the savanna.

OPINION

Our latest opinion article is a reaction to a recent piece in The Economist: Can Brazil Conquer Africa’s Booming Markets?

BEST MOZAMBIQUE MUSIC & BOOKS

Check out our Atlantico Store, now with an interesting collection of books about Mozambique as well as music from the country, all available through Amazon. Browse our collection here.

ECONOMY

Tete province in 2012 posted estimated economic growth of 40 percent, mainly driven by development of the mining industry, according to Standard Bank, which also projected that the economic growth posted in 2012 would continue into this year, Macauhub reported.

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of the new international airport for Nacala, to be inaugurated later this year.

BANKING & FINANCE

South Africa’s Nedbank Group said it plans to acquire an initial 36 percent share of Mozambique’s sixth-largest lender Banco Unico, and that it would later increase the stake to a majority shareholding (Reuters).

A new mobile banking service intended to increase access by the Mozambican population to banking services has been launched by Millennium, the bank with the biggest market share in Mozambique, local press reported.

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OIL & GAS

The Royal Dutch Shell group and the Indian consortium made up of ONGC Videsh and Oil India are the frontrunners to buy two 10 percent stakes in the Area 1 block of the Rovuma basin in Mozambique, Indian newspaper the Economic Times reported.

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Are you planning on doing business in Cape Verde? Get there with

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CAPE VERDE FLIGHT GUIDE WINTER 2012/2013

Welcome on Board! Check out Atlantico Weekly’s latest feature, the Cape Verde Flight Guide, with TACV Cape Verde Airlines Winter 2012-13 timetable and an overview of all flights to and from Cape Verde. Coming soon is the 2013 Summer Edition!

BEST RESTAURANT OF CAPE VERDE 2013

Participate in this year’s poll! Nominate your candidates for Best Restaurant of Cape Verde in 2013. Please go to the Best Restaurant page and fill in the form, thank you! Tambem em Portugues!

BEST CAPE VERDE MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Cape Verde and Angolan music, like Cesaria Evora, Tito Paris, Lura, Nancy Vieira, Mayra Andrade, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Cape Verde and Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

ECONOMY

The International Monetary Fund has corrected the error it made in calculating Cape Verde’s debt ratio for 2012. Cape Verde’s total debt stands at 81% of gross domestic product, and not 96%, as the institution had announced in mid-April. The correction represents a victory for Cape Verdean Minister of Finances Cristina Duarte, who even saw her own public debt estimate of 83% brought down 1.2 percentage points (A Semana).

The new employment figures for 2012 have been computed and released by INE. Like last year, Sao Vicente is the island with the highest number of unemployed: 29%. Santo Antao comes second with almost 22% of unemployed residents. National unemployment is almost 17%. Check out all the figures here (Pdf).

As of May 1st, any overnight stay up to 10 days at a hotel in Cape Verde will be taxed at two euros, a measure that will, according to the Government, collect revenues exceeding 600 thousand escudos annually, local press reported.

THE GRAND TOUR OF CAPE VERDE

Check out The Grand Tour of Cape Verde, Atlantico Weekly’s travel guide to the country’s main islands Santiago, Sal, Santo Antao, Boa Vista and Sao Vicente. Agora tambem em Portugues!

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AGORA TAMBEM EM PORTUGUES!

O Grand Tour de Cabo Verde esta a ser traduzido em Portugues! Começamos na Ilha de Santiago e ja seguimos para a Ilha de Sao Vicente e a Ilha de Santo Antao…

CULTURE

Slow rhythms, mournful melodies and melancholic voices. The world knows about the music from Cape Verde mainly through the late Cesária Evora, who popularised the songs from her native island of São Vicente. These brooding mornas marry Portuguese fado (traditional songs about longing) with a languid local beat—an Afro-European mix resulting from the nation’s chequered past. Spreading Cape Verde’s sounds around the world has been the life work of José da Silva, a musical entrepreneur born in Cape Verde (The Economist).

AVIATION

Low cost carrier Transavia, owned by Air France/KLM, will start operating charter flights between Amsterdam and Sao Vicente from October 2013, in addition to their flights from Paris Orly and their flights to Sal that are already operational. On top of that, Transavia will also start extending its regular Amsterdam flights to Sal with a stop at Boa Vista from October 2013. More Dutch tourists are to come as Arkefly, part of the TUI group, will raise the number of its flights from Schiphol to Sal and Boa Vista to three per week in the 2013/14 winter schedule.

ENTREPRENEURS OF CAPE VERDE

Check out Atlantico Weekly’s Entrepreneurs of Cape Verde, a series of short interviews with entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, both homegrown and foreign!

BOA VISTA

The Ministry of Infrastructures and the Maritime Economy will invest another 3.5 billion escudos in the expansion and modernization of Sal Rei sea port on Boa Vista. The figure comes in addition to the 4.8 billion escudos previously invested. The 3.5 billion escudos were alloated to Somague and MSF, the members of the consortium that is executing the project aimed at correcting the damages caused by the rough seas at the port, A Semana reported.

FOGO

The city of São Filipe has joined Ribeira Grande de Santiago (Cidade Velha), Tarrafal de Santiago and Ribeira Brava as a National Heritage Site. Official recognition of the status took place Monday, April 29, in the noble hall of the São Filipe municipal chamber (A Semana).

The ship Pentalina has damaged the roll-on/roll-off ramp at Vale dos Cavaleiros sea port on the island of Fogo. The accident marks the third time the same ship has caused damages at the port, making operations difficult for all vessels. The accident led to various constraints, especially as the island welcomes thousands of visitors for the Nhô San Filipe festivities, A Semana reported.

CAPE VERDE IN 2030

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

Meet three booming Portuguese-speaking African Countries. The rise of the what? Another acronym, you say? Well, why not… In Portuguese the countries are called PALOPs, the Paises Africanos de Lingua Oficial Portuguesa (or African Countries with Portuguese as Official Language). So we call them PACs. Three PACs have become booming economies and nobody is stopping them: Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique. Check it out.

BUSINESS

Cement company Secil Lobito – Companhia de Cimento do Lobito plans to invest 18 billion kwanzas (US$187 million) in a new cement plant in Lobito, with capacity to produce 1.2 million tons of cement per year. The new plant will be built just 200 metres from the current Secil Lobito plant, local press reported.

BEST ANGOLA MUSIC & BOOKS

Be welcome to check out Atlantico Weekly’s music cd and book store in cooperation with Amazon.com! Browse the Atlantico Store for the latest and best Angolan music, like Waldemar Bastos, Bonga and many others…! Also use the Atlantico Store to find relevant maps, books on politics, economics and history as well as travel or tourist guides about Angola. You order straight with Amazon, one of the best online stores in the world. Enjoy!

AVIATION

The airport in the city of Namibe, in southern Angola, will undergo modernisation and expansion work, and the contract for the project was approved by the central government. Once the work is finished, Namibe airport will have capacity to handle 400 passengers at peak times, 200 in departures and the same at arrivals and will be able to receive latest generation aircraft, international press reported.

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of the Radisson Blu hotel for Luanda.

BANKING & FINANCE

The central bank of Angola kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a third month as inflation accelerated. The key lending rate was left at 10 percent. The bank lowered the rate by a quarter of a percentage point in January, only the second cut since it was introduced in October 2011 (Bloomberg).

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ATLANTICO WEEKLY RECOMMENDS

SUBSCRIBE!

You can subscribe to Atlantico Weekly here. It’s free! Atlantico Weekly is now also on Facebook. Be welcome to join our group! You can follow Atlantico Weekly on Twitter at atlanticoweekly. Also be welcome to join our Atlantico Weekly networking and discussion group on Linkedin.

ADVERTISEMENT

MEET OUR CONSULTANCY

Are you planning on doing business in Angola? Get there with

Atlantico Business Development

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• economic intelligence
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• market scans

more here.

OIL & GAS

Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil producer, will cut exports in June to 51 cargoes, one less than in a preliminary plan and the lowest in nine months, according to a final loading program obtained by Bloomberg News.

Sonangol plans this year to auction off 54 new oil blocks in the Kwanza, Congo and Namibe basins. The Angolan government, alongside putting up more blocks for tender, planned to see an increasing number of Angolan companies involved in oil exploration in the country, international press reported.

YOUR AD ON ATLANTICO WEEKLY

It is now possible to place your ads on Atlantico Weekly. Write us for the options.

OPINION

Our latest opinion article is a reaction to a recent piece in The Economist: Can Brazil Conquer Africa’s Booming Markets?

BRAZIL WEEKLY

The May 3rd Edition of Brazil Weekly is ready for you with: affirmative action in Brazil, Odebrecht goes on international investment spree, trade deficit deepening, agribusiness mega trends, automotive sales record, United buys more Embraers, Maracana reopens, and of course much more…