Country Gees

Yearbook 2006

Cape Verde. According to CountryAAH, major public holidays in Cape Verde include Independence Day (July 5) and New Year (January 1). Cape Verde’s political course is fixed after parliamentary and presidential elections at the beginning of the year. The old Liberation Party PAICV retained government power after winning 40 of Parliament’s 72 seats in a January election in which just over half of the eligible voters took part. The incumbent President Pedro Pires, who represents PAICV, was re-elected in February by a slight margin. Both election results were appealed with reference to alleged irregularities, but the protests were rejected by the Supreme Court. Prime Minister José Maria Neves presented a reformed government in March, where six of the fourteen ministers are women. Five new ministries were created, with responsibility for, among other things. higher education, family issues and housing policy.

Economy

Cape Verde Geopolitical Atlas

Cape Verde, a small archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean 500 km off the coast of Senegal, became independent from Portugal in 1975. The unification project with Guinea Bissau, wanted by the first presidents, never materialized due to the coup d’état that took place in Guinea in 1980.

Even today the archipelago is linked to Lisbon from a political, cultural and economic point of view. Over the years, the country has built solid relationships with the European Union in terms of economic cooperation, investments and the fight against international illicit trafficking. In recent years, a growing trend towards the development of cooperation projects in a ‘south-south’ perspective has emerged in the network of Cape Verdean international relations, with nations such as Brazil and China, interested in enhancing the strategic position of the islands for routes commercial transatlantic. Furthermore, in recent years, Cape Verde has strengthened its economic and political cooperation with Angola, another former Portuguese colony, and with the countries of the West African coast.

Cape Verde is an active member of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries, is part of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States. The political life of the country in the last twenty years has been characterized by the alternation of the government of the Partido Africano da Independência de Cabo Verde (Paicv) and the Movimento para Democracia (Mpd). In 2011, Prime Minister José Maria Pereira Neves’s Paicv obtained the majority of seats, thanks to the results of his government which managed to attract huge flows of foreign capital and considerable financial aid, so as to reach a growth rate of 6%. It could have been a driving force for investments made in education, health and infrastructure development,

In addition, the heavy repercussions of the international economic crisis have resulted in a reduction in aid, remittances and investments, with social consequences such as increased unemployment and urban crime. The national economy is strongly oriented on services, which account for 75.9% of the GDP and in particular on the tourism sector: a feature that makes the Cape Verdean economy extremely linked to the health of the international economy. The archipelago’s economic growth has undergone a significant decline, settling at around 1% in the two-year period 2013-14. But 2015 saw a slight recovery along with improving global economic conditions.

The legacy of Portuguese colonization is reflected not only in the country’s political and commercial relations, but also in the composition of Cape Verdean society itself. About 70% of the islands’ population is mulatto and the Catholic religion still plays a predominant role. If Portuguese remains the language of the elite, Cape Verde is certainly one of the ambassadors of the Creole language and culture at an international level.