Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Minister of Finance and Digital Economy, Olavo Correia, considered this Monday, 10th, in Mindelo, that Cape Verde “cannot continue to be a monoculture of tourism”, and that new areas of economy must emerge.
The vice-prime minister of the Republic was also speaking regarding the launch of the Cape Verde Economic Update’24 Report, a document in which the World Bank analyzes the current state of the Cape Verdean economy and presents policy options to accelerate fiscal consolidation, reduce debt vulnerabilities and boost growth.
According to Olavo Correia, one of the areas that should emerge is the Sea, in fact, he considered, Cape Verde “cannot be understood as a small terrestrial economy” because, otherwise, “it will be a small economy”.
“But if we look at a maritime economy, Cape Verde is a big economy and we have to look at the sea in a holistic way, at four levels, what can we explore in the water, under the water, in the coastal area and what is what we can also do in terms of transport, transhipment and bunkering”, he exemplified.
For the Minister of Finance, this way there are conditions to make the sea a “driving and accelerating” sector of the dynamics of economic growth in Cape Verde.
“Not only anchored in semi-industrial fishing, but also in industrial fishing, looking at transport, ports, the entire area of fishing, processing, research, because we can only address the issue of the sea if we invest in qualification of human resources, not only in the technical area, but also in the research area”, he concluded.
The same source stated that the country must have scientists and biologists to be able to master knowledge and predict what actions and trends will be in relation to the future.
In this regard, he announced that Cape Verde is working with the European Union within the framework of the Global Gateway program and around 300 million euros have already been agreed for the ports sector, but also for the energy transition, which will be invested particularly in the north. , on the islands of São Vicente and Santo Antão, in the area of ports and fishing, in order to create infrastructure and business capacity.
But, he argued, in addition to this, it is essential to create an ecosystem of small and larger companies so that the value chain can be a fundamental element in this new strategy.
“It’s not worth just bringing in big investments and big investors. It is essential that a chain of small and larger companies can emerge in São Vicente and Cape Verde, along this entire maritime value chain, so that we can generate qualified and well-paid jobs for our young people”, he projected.
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