Cape Verde announces new Foreign Exchange Law to attract Portuguese investment
The Government of Cape Verde announced the entry into force, starting in 2018, of a new Foreign Exchange Law aimed at liberalizing all capital movements in the archipelago and called on Portuguese businessmen to invest in the country.
The announcement was made on Friday evening by Cape Verdean Finance Minister Olavo Correia at a meeting / dinner with businesspeople in Porto, part of the program of the four-day state visit that Cape Verde’s President Jorge Carlos Fonseca , made from Wednesday to Portugal.
“We have a fixed parity with the euro. We have approved, in the Council of Ministers, and now goes to Parliament, a new Foreign Exchange Law, which will liberalize all capital movements of Cape Verde with the outside. Once approved, I think that at the beginning of next year, any transaction from and to Cape Verde will be free, without any bureaucratic restriction, “said Olavo Correia.
“Any citizen or company can open accounts in national or foreign currency, without any restriction, and any transaction of Cape Verde out, in any currency, will be done without bureaucratic or administrative intervention,” added the Cape Verdean ruler at the meeting, which took place at Palácio da Bolsa.
In explaining the investment appeal, Olavo Correia, in the presence of Jorge Carlos Fonseca, stressed that Cape Verde “wants to be a strong brand”, stressing that it is a “stable and predictable” country, where “it is worth investing” and the investment “has a return”.
Cape Verde is “the next tourist destination, investment, opportunities in the most diverse fields: renewable energy, air and maritime transport, telecommunications and technologies, sea economy and financial system,” he said.
“We are well located, we have a qualified and qualified young population, we have a predictable country, we are in an extraordinary geostrategic location and we have a developmental history that allows us to have this confidence,” Olavo Correia insisted to justify the new Foreign Exchange Law.
Also present at the meeting, Cape Verde Trade Investor Nuno Levy indicated that there should be € 1.7 billion of projects for the coming years, especially in the area of tourism, as well as opportunities for markets such as West Africa and the United States .
“We have great opportunities for anyone who wants to relocate, or relocate part of the operations, to export from Cape Verde. An interesting area, especially for the north of Portugal, is textiles. There are niches and we see the United States market with a very great potential, because we have a commercial agreement that allows exporting free of fees, “he said.
“Benefiting from the stability that the country offers, companies that settle in Cape Verde will also be able to export to West Africa,” said Nuno Levy, statements that together with Olavo Correia paved the way for the president of Cabo Green to go even further in the call for investment.
“The interventions were so clear and detailed that if I was a Portuguese or Portuguese businessman, I was immediately going to Cape Verde,” said Jorge Carlos Fonseca, causing laughter among the assistance.
For the Cape Verdean head of state, who ends the State visit to Portugal on Sunday, the “target areas” for investment – tourism, air and sea transport, renewable energy, technologies and economy of the sea – “not being virgins” , are “appealing and seductive” for entrepreneurs, given the large West African and North American markets.
Promise of the Business Association of Porto is to send, in the coming months, a business mission to Cape Verde.
Source: Anacao News, 26th November, 2017