The Government wants the blue economy to contribute 25% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2030, generating 35.000 jobs and becoming an export sector, the Deputy Prime Minister said end of last week.
“The blue economy is the second accelerator of sustainable development in Cape Verde and has the potential to generate around 25% of GDP and 30,000 to 35,000 direct jobs by 2030, i.e. become an export sector, the second anchor after tourism and one of the main employer sectors,” outlined Olavo Correia.
Speaking in Praia at the opening ceremony of a workshop to present the progress of the joint project “Connecting blue economy actors: generating jobs, improving livelihoods and mobilizing resources”, the Minister of Finance stressed that the strategy is for a paradigm shift in relation to the sea.
“In order to transform it into one of the main anchors of development, diversification and specialization of the Cape Verdean economy”, he added, saying that the Government of Cape Verde intends to continue to count on the partnership and contribution of the United Nations System to face and overcome these challenges.
The project “Connecting blue economy actors: generating employment, improving livelihoods and mobilizing resources” is a United Nations initiative, which is being implemented under the programme “Building Resilience and Ending Vulnerability in Small Island Developing States”.
“We welcome the “Connecting Blue Economy Actors” project to be implemented by different UN agencies in collaboration with different ministries, civil society partners and the private sector with the technical coordination of FAO,” said the minister of Cape Verde, an archipelago with 99% sea.
The Deputy Prime Minister also emphasized the fact that the project could, among other things, contribute to alleviating the problem of socio-economic and financial exclusion of women and young people in fishing communities.