The African nation of Cape Verde is ripe for foreign investment, Prime Minister Jose Maria Pereira Neves told 70 Boston University faculty members, representatives from Boston area businesses and community members Monday.
‘Cape Verde is prepared for its take off,’ said Neves, through a translator. ‘However, the future of Cape Verde will depend on what we will accomplish in the next 10 years.’
The invite-only breakfast, sponsored by BU’s African Presidential Archives and Research Center and held in the School of Management, was the last stop in a series of talks across New England on the culture and future of the 10-island nation located off the coast of western Africa.
Neves said Cape Verde’s location in the Atlantic presents a wealth of investment opportunities from fisheries to trade. However, without economic stimulus from foreign investors, the nation cannot create the schools, industry and transportation hubs necessary for a modern country.
‘Cape Verde should have been called Cape Blue, because the sea and all that has to do with the sea are opportunities,’ Neves said. ‘I truly believe that if Cape Verde is developed it can be a strong partner in the Atlantic community.’
Neves said five points lead to modernization good governance, development of human capital, private sector investment and competition, poverty reduction and infrastructure development.
‘We have a strategic plan for the country,’ Neves said. ‘We achieved public stability and democracy has taken hold. Cape Verde does not have gold or diamonds, but knowledge is our key resource and we must develop it … this demands millions of dollars in investment.’
Georgina DeMello, president of PROMEX, the Cape Verdean tourism and investment bureau, said the great threat to Cape Verde’s future is unemployment, which the last census placed at 17 percent.
‘When the government took over in February 2001, the economy was somehow difficult,’ she said. ‘Our biggest problem at the moment is unemployment.’
Linda Barros, a Cape Verdean who is the Branch Operations Manager for FleetBoston Financial, said after the breakfast that many Cape Verdeans immigrated to America for better opportunities and are now slowly starting to return to their homeland.
‘We have almost 300,000 [Cape Verdeans] in Massachusetts,’ she said. ‘We needed to get out. We needed to provide for our families.’
However, ‘more of us are going back than ever before. Of course, really we never left,’ she added.
APARC Director Charles Stith, the former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania, said the Cape Verdean government contacted BU and requested to hold an event on campus.
‘They called us,’ he said. ‘This affirms the center and BU as a ‘must do’ venue for African leadership.’
APARC Programming Development Manager and College of Communication graduate Julia Kenna added that the center is in constant contact with 14 African nations and governments.
‘I think it is incredible we actual have African presidents and prime ministers contact us regularly,’ she said. ‘Really we are the only university like this, connecting business people with politicians. We have been around for a few years now and folks are now seeing that we are a good outlet to the community.’
Atlantic Bridge Company representative Dan Leahy said Stith is giving developing countries a valuable outlet by connecting them with investors.
‘I think what Ambassador Stith is doing really is what must be done for developing countries like Cape Verde,’ he said.
Leahy compared Cape Verde’s current situation to Ireland’s condition in the 1920s after it gained independence.
‘Ireland was a colony that turned into the most thriving country in Europe,’ he said. ‘That is the model for Cape Verde. They both have a favorable location for trade, unfortunately high unemployment however that can mean they can develop their work force and taxes that are favorable to businesses.’
Leahy said he had confidence in Cape Verde’s government and the Neves’ plans for the future.
‘Cape Verde could really be the next bridge to Africa,’ he said. ‘Cape Verde has dedicated leaders who have the will and capacity to do great things. You have to look ahead in 10-, 20-year cycles. They are doing that.’
College of Arts and Sciences senior and APARC intern Philip Kiranga said he considered this event a great opportunity for BU and Cape Verde.
‘It is important for the country because many people don’t know of Cape Verde,’ he said. ‘Every day is a learning process. I came here and thought that I knew but now I see that I had no idea.’
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
