Africa-Press – Cape verde. The former Bulimundo building, which once housed a psychiatric hospital, in the Cutelinho area of Santa Cruz, will be rehabilitated by businessman Albino Nunes, to make way for a four-star hotel with 43 rooms. The project, budgeted at 2,700,000 euros, also includes the acquisition of a boat to make the maritime connection Pedra Badejo/Maio, with capacity for 90 seats and seven tons of cargo.
The investment, presented this Sunday, 07, will contribute, firstly, to the generation of jobs in Santa Cruz, and, secondly, to increase the number of rooms available in the municipality.
This is the perspective of Cape Verdean investor Albino Nunes, who also operates the Hotel Falucho and the restaurant with the same name.
“Santa Cruz is a city that has everything for the future. Today, more and more people are fleeing the capital to live in rural towns and Santa Cruz has it all. It has the sea, it has mountains and it has good people. And it is in this expectation that I continue to invest here in this municipality”, explains the businessman, based in France.
Four stars, 43 rooms
Budgeted at a global value of two million and seven hundred thousand euros, the project proposes a four-star hotel, with 43 rooms, including a presidential suite , leisure and social areas, coupled with a maritime connection project aimed at tourism, among the city of Pedra Badejo and the island of Maio.
“From the experience I had, with the opening of the Hotel Falucho, people arrive here and in two/three days they start to get tired, because there are no alternatives. So, taking into account that we are just a few minutes away from the island of Maio, having a boat, people can go in the morning and return at the end of the day. This, both for foreign tourists and national citizens”, suggests the businessman.
Merge between the built and the modern
For the materialization of the project, explains the architect Kévin Moreira, a marriage between the built and the modern was made, preserving a large part of the original features of the building.
“We took advantage of a building that was already in a high state of degradation and that is currently being used by firefighters, communication agencies and some housing. It’s a three-story building, with the technical, kitchen and services part in the basement and the other floors for the bedrooms, including a presidential suite”, he explains.
Construction work on the hotel, which also includes a social, leisure and living area, a swimming pool for adults and children and a wet bar, should start in September, with a completion period of 18 months.
“The private sector does the development” – Deputy Prime Minister
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Business Development, Olavo Correia, present at the launch of the project, underlined the importance of initiatives of this kind, resulting from successful partnerships between the State, through local and central authorities, and the private sector.
“ The State, central and municipal, has an obligation to create the conditions, create the business environment, create a good investment climate to attract private individuals and private individuals must invest. They invest, create jobs, generate wealth”, considered the minister.
It is through this public-private partnership, he underlined, that it is possible to move the country forward.
“If we manage to multiply this experience in Santa Cruz, Santiago and throughout Cape Verde, the country will move forward. Cape Verde needs private, national, national investment in the diaspora and foreign investment,” added the minister.
Olavo Correia even highlighted the fact that businessman Albino Nunes is an “example of pragmatism, confidence and commitment to what he says”, in view of other investments already materialized in the municipality.
Diversification of the offer – Minister of Tourism
For his part, the Minister of Tourism and Transport, who was also present at the event, welcomed the initiative, which he considered to be important, in a phase of diversification of the tourist offer, to also increase demand.
“This is an example of investment by a young emigrant who is all we want, which is to continue to focus on bringing in and attracting our emigrants, those who are out there, to invest in these areas. For this reason, we are very pleased when we see an investor, of Cape Verdean descent, investing in Cape Verde, especially in a city like Pedra Badejo, in a municipality that did not have the tradition of tourism but is beginning to take its first steps ”, emphasized Carlos Santos.
“It is worth dreaming” – mayor Carlos Silva
For the mayor of Santa Cruz, Carlos Silva, this project, especially with regard to the maritime connection with the island of Maio, appears as a light at the end of the tunnel and a clear sign that it is worth dreaming about resume this route.
“The Santa Cruz/Maio link is our big dream. And maybe it justifies dreaming because we are already seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. If all goes well, according to our manager, from September we will be able to resume the connection”, he stressed.
Bearing in mind the importance of private investment in development, the mayor guarantees that Santa Cruz is already aware of this, has been working in this direction and, for some time now, has been reaping some fruits.
“We have the case of the Falucho restaurant, which is part of the City’s property, whose concession contract has already successfully completed the first two years. From then on, we were able to negotiate the reopening of the only hotel that the municipality had, which had been closed for many years”, he exemplified, adding that the municipality is planning more investments in this regard.
On the same day the project was launched, the council signed a protocol for 60 hectares of land to work on urban expansion and to create a new center in the south of the municipality.
“The right path” – Tourism Association of Santiago
For the president of the Tourism Association of Santiago, Eugénio Inocêncio, this type of investment, which involves the interest of public, central and local authorities, as well as the private sector and the diaspora, is the way to achieve development.
“There is an intersection here of several situations that are fundamental for the development of Cape Verde. On the one hand, the private initiative, on the other hand, the State represented here by the Government and the Municipality of Santa Cruz and, on the other hand, the diaspora. It is the convergence of some of the fundamental conditions for us to carry out the development of Cape Verde”, he underlined.
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