Minister for Communities takes stock of Governance in the community sector

As a balance sheet, Jorge Santos presented yesterday, March 1st, during the conference on the Development of Santo Antão what the Ministry under his tutelage has developed, according to the Government Programme, since the beginning of the IX Legislature ( 2016-2022).

As a balance sheet, Jorge Santos presented yesterday, March 1st, during the conference on the Development of Santo Antão what the Ministry under his tutelage has developed, according to the Government Programme, since the beginning of the IX Legislature ( 2016-2022).

During his explanation, the Minister of Communities briefly highlighted the new centrality that the Government intends to give to the Diaspora. “Giving centrality to our Communities implies assuming that Cape Verde is a Country of emigration and that we have more people living abroad than in here, and reaffirming the Government's political will to integrate our Diaspora into our development process, which It forces you to know it, know where it is, know its members and their profiles, through reliable and official statistics, because they are produced by the national statistical authority and integrated into the national statistical system”, said the Minister.

The Member of the Government responsible for the portfolio of the “Cape Verdean Diaspora” assumed that the Diaspora represents a Strategic Pillar for the development process of Cape Verde. In his speech, he suggested a paradigm shift in the country's relationship with the world and emigrant communities, so that it would be possible to commit to well-identified reforms in the Strategic Plan for Communities.

With regard to the role of emigrants' remittances in the Cape Verdean economy, that is, on the economic and financial dimension of the Cape Verdean Diasporia, Jorge Santos referred that according to the 2022 report of the Bank of Cabo Verde, the flow of remittances of the Cape Verdean Diaspora represents one of the country's stable external flows, surpassing public development aid and foreign direct investment, being one of the most important sources of financing for our economy and the sustainable development of Cape Verde.

In 2022, emigrants' remittances reached 375 million US Dollars, thus representing 18.5% of GDP, according to the latest World Bank report. During his presentation, the holder of the portfolio of communities presented the Government's active policies for the integration of emigrant Communities in Cape Verde and in the host countries, with the Government having so far developed a set of programmes, activities and actions in order to promote, facilitate and encourage direct investment by emigrants in Cape Verde. As an example, he highlighted the implementation of the Consular Portal, which significantly improved the quality of consular services; the approval and regulation of the law that creates the Emigrant Investor Statute and establishes an incentive regime in favor of direct investment by emigrants in Cape Verde; the implementation of the New Management Model for small orders in the Ports of Cape Verde; the creation of access conditions for emigrant investors to the business promotion and entrepreneurship promotion ecosystem.

The Minister of Communities also listed some projects that are currently underway, such as the preparation of the Diaspora Investor's Guide, the Cape Verdean Communities Portal, aggregator of all existing digital portals and digital service providers in preparation and the design of the mapping and census to define the profiles of members of emigrant communities.