Business and investment opportunities in the Cabo Verde islands

Luxembourg - Cabo Verde

H.E. Mr Paul Schmit, Ambassador of Luxembourg to Cabo Verde, H.E. Ms Leonesa Fortes, Minister of Tourism, Investment and Business Development of the Republic of Cabo Verde, H.E. Mr José Maria Neves, Prime Minister of Cabo Verde, Mr Carlo Thelen, Director

In the framework of the Official Visit of H.E. Prime Minister of the Republic of Cabo Verde, Mr José Maria Neves and H.E. Ms Leonesa Fortes, Minister of Tourism, Investment and Business Development, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in close cooperation with the Embassy of Cabo Verde in Luxembourg, organized a high-level seminar on business and investment opportunities in the Cabo Verde islands.

The Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce is actually a long lasting supporter of the development of bilateral economic relations and this since it organized its first economic mission to Cabo Verde in March 2004, attracting 10 participating companies. As a clear outcome of that mission, Luxair started to develop a specific offer for the tourist destination Cabo Verde.

After the highlight of bilateral relations, the Official Visit of H.R.H. the Grand Duke to Cabo Verde in March 2015, very concrete projects arose and their finalization will be seen in a near future. During this Official Mission, ERMI, a vocational training centre for renewable energy was inaugurated by the Minister of Cooperation and Development Aid, Mr Romain Schneider, while State Secretary for Economy, Ms Francine Closener, inaugurated a part of the Luxembourg funded Tourism School.

The new initiative, the implementation of a Hospitality Fund, taken by the Government of Cabo Verde now trusts Luxembourg’s expertise in the financial services sector. In fact, Cabo Verde presented during the seminar a specific tourism focused fund, a fund which will clearly benefit from the Luxembourg excellence in fund management and distribution. Some 80 highly interested participants got the chance to identify concrete projects on different islands, all aiming at diversifying and enriching the touristic offer of this destination.

This latest addition to our bilateral relations is only another milestone in the rather young history of bilateral economic cooperation and maybe this strategy will see more Luxembourg based Cabo Verdians heading back to their home country because economic outlook will be better there than within the EU.