Government will reverse hotel-casino concession in Djéu. “It cannot stay as it is”, said the PM

“First we have to reverse the concession. This is an exploration and investment concession. There had been indications for some time that there would be problems on the investor's side, their ability to complete the project”, said Ulisses Correia e Silva, in the city of Praia.

In an interview with Hong Kong television TVB, broadcast on Wednesday night, the president and chief executive of Macau Legend Development, Li Chu Kwan, announced that the group intends to cease operations in both Cape Verde and Cambodia by 2025.

“Now we are going to do the parts that have to do with all the legal support to make the concession and then see what destination to give to this investment, which cannot remain as it is”, added Ulisses Correia e Silva, when questioned on the sidelines of the opening of the new academic year at the University of Cape Verde (UniCV).

According to the prime minister, the group, founded by businessman David Chow, alleged financial and shareholder organization problems to give up on this, which was one of the tourist projects eagerly awaited in Cape Verde.

Ulisses Correia e Silva said that the Government will now resume the occupation carried out under a concession regime and create conditions for new projects to emerge on the site.

In 2015, David Chow signed an agreement with the Cape Verdean Government for the construction of the project on the islet of Santa Maria, in Gamboa, with the first stone of the project being laid in February 2016.

The project involved the largest tourist development in Cape Verde at the time, with a planned global investment of 250 million euros – around 15% of Cape Verde's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The plan involved the construction of a tourist resort with an area of 152,700 square meters, a 250-room boutique casino hotel, which has already been built but is closed, a swimming pool, several restaurant and bar facilities, as well as a marina, and a bridge was also built to the islet.

The construction of the project was contested at the time by various social circles, especially environmentalists, including a group of 12 scientists and paleontologists coordinated by the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, in Portugal.

But also by elements of the Cape Verdean movement "Korrenti di Atividade" camped on the islet of Santa Maria, and by the former president of the Cape Verdean Order of Architects (OAC), Cipriano Fernandes, who even asked for the intervention of the Prosecutor's Office- General of the Republic (PGR) to suspend the project.

In December, the president of Cabo Verde TradeInvest, José Almada Dias, told Lusa that Macau Legend had promised to soon present a plan to resume work, which had been stopped for several years.

The company received a 25-year license from the Government of Cape Verde, 15 of which on an exclusive basis on the island of Santiago. This gaming concession cost CV Entertainment Co., a subsidiary of Macau Legend, the equivalent of around 1.2 million euros.