Africa-Press – Cape verde. Cape Verde will be operationalizing the agreement with Microsoft by the end of this year, Deputy Prime Minister Olavo Correia assured Lusa, advocating that the country will be one of the “most important” technological hubs in Africa in the future.
“We are finalizing [the agreement with Microsoft], because this is also linked to the start of operation of our ‘Techpark’. This year it will be completed. Next year we will do a big launch, so by the end of this year we will be operationalize this agreement with Microsoft”, said Olavo Correia on the sidelines of the 2024 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, in Washington.
Last year, the Cape Verdean executive announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding for technological development and support in the areas of “education, digital governance and entrepreneurship” with the North American technological giant.
The memorandum, signed in New York at the end of September, placed “focus on supporting the construction of a Center of Excellence in qualification and training in the areas of cybersecurity, privacy, Power Apps and Artificial Intelligence, and also on promoting digital connectivity of schools, development of digital literacy, assistance in the implementation of digital infrastructures and platforms, and in the training and development of electronic government”, according to a statement released at the time.
According to Olavo Correia, who is also Minister of Finance and Business Development, Cape Verde already has “exceptional conditions for managing these companies and creating opportunities for young Cape Verdeans” within the country, believing that the ‘Techpark’ “will be equal to a park in Europe or the United States or any other developed country”.
“We will certainly make Cape Verde a digital economy and a digital nation”, he stressed, arguing that the Government has made major investments for this purpose.
“Cape Verde has invested, in our ‘data center’ technology park alone, which will operate this year, (…) 54 million dollars (50.6 million euros). We invested in the ‘EllaLink’ fiber optic submarine cable We already have two cables and are moving towards a third cable. We are also investing in the entire mooring of the submarine cable between the islands, modernizing it with a new cable in terms of capacity so that we can move forward from a quality point of view. We are also moving towards 5G”, he listed.
In an interview with Lusa, Olava Correia also defended investment in human capital, and in various levels of education, to guarantee the country capacity dedicated to the digital economy.
“We are making big investments here, but many of them do not produce immediate results. It is necessary to sow seeds and have patience and persistence to then reap the fruits”, he advocated.
Cape Verde also aims to achieve digital governance, wanting to reach, in 2026, around 65% of public services as digital services, and 80% by 2030, said the minister.
Asked by Lusa about the fact that Cape Verde is competing with larger markets where technology parks are also being built, such as Dakar, Nigeria, Ghana, among others, Olavo Correia argued that it is a matter of “perspective” and that in a technological world “there are no small countries and big countries”.
“I don’t think Cape Verde is a small market. When we look at the land territory, yes, but if we look at the maritime territory, Cape Verde is a large maritime nation. If we look at the world from a digital perspective, there are no small countries or large countries , there are countries that dominate the technologies and countries that do not dominate the technologies”, he pointed out.
The minister argued that if countries have a good governance framework, high-quality human capital and good infrastructure “they end up being great countries, because they are countries connected to the world”, and “if there is internal capacity to produce for export”, then Cape Verde will be “integrated into the global world”.
“We are already starting to take important steps, but we have to continue investing above all in governance, in cyber security, but above all in talent. In Cape Verdean talent, young people and women who are in the country and in the diaspora, to be able to make digital economy an accelerator of dynamics and development”, he reinforced.
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