“Guinea-Bissau is experiencing a moment of great stability, we are witnessing this, and it is a situation also evaluated by the businessmen themselves, by the Cape Verdeans, Guineans,” said Jorge Santos, the Cape Verdean Minister of Communities, to the media.
Jorge Santos was speaking in Bissau, where he arrived on Thursday for a visit, which ran until Sunday.
“The situation is very favorable for the re-launching of close and familiar relations, it is a brother country, where we also have a great historical complicity to make things happen, and the business sector, the economic and financial relations are determinant,” the Cape Verdean Minister of Communities pointed out.
According to the minister, not only will maritime and air transport connections be created in the short term, but also business activities will be relaunched with the Cape Verdean community at the “interface of these relations.
“This has led our governments to dialogue to relaunch cooperation in the agricultural area, promoting agricultural companies and investment in the agricultural sector, companies with Cape Verdean and Guinean businessmen or together, thinking not only in the Guinea-Bissau market, but also in the Cape Verdean market,” he said.
Explaining that Cape Verde has about a million tourists a year and that the country often has to import food from Europe and South Africa, the minister advocated agricultural development in Guinea-Bissau “two steps” away from his country.
“So it’s about producing with quality, establishing the necessary logistics chains, especially at a time when we are experiencing a global food crisis,” he said.
“These south-south relations and two countries that are practically one hour away by air transport is determinant in these relations and that is why we are here in contact with the community and the Guinean authorities,” he stressed.
According to the minister, people are “tired of announcements, they want to have actions, and this is the responsibility of this generation.
The minister also pointed out that the Cape Verdean government has already created tax incentives and facilities for the business diaspora and an ecosystem for business promotion.
In relation to the Guinean community living in Cape Verde, the minister said that this year they have already managed to legalize most of the Guinean community, that is, around 3,000 people and that the process will continue.
Jorge Santos met on Friday with Guinean authorities and with the Cape Verdean community living in Guinea-Bissau. On Saturday, he visited the city of Canchungo.