Saturday 3rd May, 2008
The airport on the island of Maio will re-open on the 16th of this month, according to an announcement made yesterday by the Airport and Air Security company (ASA). After nine months of improvement work, the airport is ready to begin operating again, which will help reduce Maio's isolation from the rest of the country.
According to a press release from ASA, the Maio airport is a class 2B structure, appropriate for ATR 42 and 72-type aircrafts, has a 1,200-meter long and 30-meter wide runway, and features a fire-fighting system.
During the nine months of work on the airport, ASA carried compacted and regularized the runway's foundation using touvenant material, and reinforced the pavement with bituminous concrete. The runway's rainwater drainage system was also corrected, and the airport's flight formation service was remodeled. An automatic meteorological station identical to those in the country's six other operating airports was also installed.
The ASA communiqué also reveals that following the airport's re-opening on May 16, work will begin on the passenger terminal.
The company responsible for the requalification work is Monte Adriano. The project cost a total of 220 million escudos, financed by ASA.
A Semana
Tuesday 22nd April, 2008
TACV Cabo Verde Airlines will be privatized in mid-2009, Minister of Infrastructures, Transportation and the Sea Manuel Inocêncio Sousa told A Semana Online this weekend.
Sousa made the revelation on Friday during a visit by United States Undersecretary of Transportation Thomas Barrett.
The first date set for the privatization of Cape Verde’s flagship carrier was late 2007. One year after US-based company Sterling Merchant was given a 12-month contract to direct the airline. The government, however, opted to give Sterling Merchant more time to do the job it had been hired to conclude, and ended up defining 2008 as the target year for TACV to become a private company. Now, for the first time, Cape Verde's Minister of Transportation has admitted that the privatization will only take place in mid-2009.
In a quick visit to Cape Verde last Friday, the United States Undersecretary for Transportation highlighted the Cape Verdean government's prudence regarding TACV. Barrett, who visited Praia International Airport in the company of Manuel Inocêncio Sousa, told journalists that it was "very good" that the Cape Verdean government was preparing TACV's privatization "very carefully."
A Semana
Thursday 20th March, 2008
Prime Minister José Maria Neves spoke yesterday of the possibility of allowing the euro to circulate freely in Cape Verde during his speech marking the tenth anniversary of the exchange accord between Cape Verde and Portugal. Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, who came to Cape Verde to participate in the ceremony celebrating this unique financial partnership between the two countries, said that "this ambition on the part of Cape Verde is natural, given the positive results that have been achieved."
"With all due technical and political caution, we are studying the possibility of having the euro circulate in Cape Verde. It is an issue of considerable technical and political reach that merits pondering, but it constitutes one possible path within the framework of [Cape Verde’s] special partnership with the European Union," said the Prime Minister during his speech.
In the view of Portugal’s Minister of Finances, the euro already effectively circulates in Cape Verde, and institutionalizing its circulation in the country "is a legitimate ambition that reveals the country’s macroeconomic stability. More work needs to be done on technical and normative convergence, strengthening contacts with European institutions and preparing for a more rigorous framework in terms of budgetary discipline and exchange policies," recommended Teixeira dos Santos.
The Portuguese Finance Minister also said that "Cape Verde is a reference for the governing community" and "one of the priority spaces for Portuguese cooperation," referring to the 140 million euros in financing announced for the improvement of port and highway infrastructures in the country.
Prime Minister José Maria Neves, for his part, highlighted Cape Verde’s "external credibility and the atmosphere of confidence on the part of domestic and foreign private economic operators and investors" as a conquest achieved by the country, which managed to fulfill "Maastricht criteria through fiscal sustainability, price stability and the sustainability of foreign economic relations."
"The fixed exchange rate between the Cape Verdean escudo and the euro has allowed the country to soften the impact of negative external shocks, which otherwise would have had very serious consequences in an open economy such as Cape Verde’s. We also have to be prepared for the consequences of the dizzying rise in the price of petroleum and grains and of the real-estate crisis," said José Maria Neves.
Cape Verdean Minister of Finances and Public Administration Cristina Duarte, for her part, affirmed that this "exchange anchor is solid and benign."
A Semana
Monday 3rd March, 2008
The Cape Verdean government has invested 2.7 million euros on the electrification of rural areas of the islands of Santiago, Fogo and Maio, the director-general for Industry and Energy, Abraão Lopes, said in Praia Friday.
The electrical equipment, which has almost all been purchased from Portuguese companies, is already in a warehouse in Praia and will serve the areas of Ribeira Grande, São Jorge dos Órgãos, Santa Cruz, S. Miguel, Tarrafal and Santa Catarina, on Santiago Island, as well as the islands of Fogo and Maio.
"The projects are already underway, the contracts have been signed and the contractors are already on the ground," said Lopes.
The current coverage rate of electricity in Cape Verde is 80 percent, Lopes noted, adding that after these projects were concluded this rate would be 85 percent.
By 2011, the economy minister, José Brito said, the government aimed to have 95 percent of the country with access to electricity, and reach total coverage by 2015.
He also said that a Swiss, Swedish and Dutch owned renewable energy company would come into operation and would boost the energy supply in urban areas.
MacauHub
Wednesday 26th September, 2007
Overseas property investors buying homes in Cape Verde may benefit from the islands' low profile, according to one expert.
Carley Todd, spokesperson for GEM Estates, said that the market remains "largely undiscovered" but capital appreciation and rental yields are expected to be high.
With an average temperature of 25 degrees C all year round, Ms Todd said that investors could expect to achieve maximum rental returns.
"Rental figures are based on a realistic 40 weeks per year where as other emerging markets expect to achieve 25, at the very best," she remarked.
The Cape Verde National Statistics Institute recently reported that the islands saw a 26.4 per cent increase in tourists in 2006.
Paul Collins, overseas editor of BuyAssociation, recently said that the availability of direct flights to Cape Verde from the UK is likely to help to boost the country's tourism sector.
London Stock Exchange
Wednesday 19th September, 2007
New flights from the UK to Cape Verde have been welcomed as a possible boost to tourism and investment in the region.
Cape Verde's national airline, TACV, will begin running the flights between London's Stansted Airport twice a week, commencing 29th October 2007, servicing both capital city Praia on Santiago Island every Monday and to the neighbouring primary international airport on Sal Island every Thursday.
In addition to the direct flights to the islands of Santiago and Sal, the airline also has plans to operate a direct service from the UK to the island of Boa Vista commencing in January 2008.
Wednesday 29th August, 2007
The first phase of the project to improve and expand the port of Praia was presented Monday in the Cape Verdean capital at a meeting presided by the minister of state for Infrastructures, Transport and the Sea, Manuel Inocêncio Sousa.
The first phase of the project includes topographical, hydrographic, geotechnical, economical and environmental surveys, as well as drawing up number 1, a breakwater and rebuilding of quay number 2.
It also includes building of a services center for port and logistics services, container processing and a warehouse.
Simultaneously, a Plan for Environmental Management and Supervision will be drawn up for Praia port, according to the project description.
The end of the first phase is scheduled for February 2008, and building work is due to begin in March of the same year.
MacauHub
Maio airport to re-open on May 16 2008
