Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Minister of the Sea today sets the beginning of 2025 as the new deadline for the start of operation of the Mindelo Cruise Terminal due to engineering, work and international logistics difficulties.
Abraão Vicente, who, during a visit to the infrastructure in December 2023, indicated the first half of 2024 as the terminal’s opening date, extended the deadline again to 2025.
“We have a forecast here, following all the procedures, for August to be handed over to the work. But we do not believe that this will happen due to the difficulties in engineering, work and international logistics that we are currently facing”, highlighted the official.
According to the same source, the delays are due to the “complexity of the work”, and pointed out as examples a ship that was sunk at the site and of which “they had no references” and the international context of the war between Palestine and Israel, which, he asserted, it has “congested some channels” for sending materials to São Vicente.
On the other hand, explained the minister, a project worth “almost three million euros” was introduced which has to do with `short port supply ́, which will allow the decarbonization of the cruise terminal.
A change, which, assured Abraão Vicente, was made after the start of the process, but which will give the port “a vanguard position” in relation to other cruise terminals in the world.
The minister assured that the new project already has financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and also part of the financing guaranteed by the port management company itself (Enapor).
Therefore, he said he believes that, despite the delay, the Mindelo Cruise Terminal is already having an impact on the arrival of more ships to Mindelo, which this year will have more than 200 stopovers, a number of more than 120 thousand passengers.
“The impact of this terminal in Mindelo will be absolutely extraordinary. And it is essential that all services on the island prepare for what will be an authentic revolution on the island”, maintained Abraão Vicente.
The construction of the terminal is carried out by the Portuguese-Cape Verdean consortium made up of the companies Mota-Engil – Engenharia e Construção, SA and Empreitel Figueiredo, SA and the project is co-financed by the Government of Cape Verde, the ORIO Fund of the Netherlands and the Fund OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) for International Development.
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