Nuías Silva elected president of the Board of Directors of the Association of Municipalities of Fogo and Brava

Nuías Silva, who was speaking to the press, said that the group is putting together all the objective conditions for a new start for the Intermunicipal Association, which it wants to be "strong", to meet as often as it should under the bylaws and to be able to bring a new strategic direction to the dimension that these four municipalities together manage to boost in terms of the development of the territory.

According to the same source, we're talking about an association that, as well as operating under the terms of the statutes, will be in dialogue with the government, with the municipalities, with decentralized cooperation, both bilateral and multilateral, in order to bring and attract important investments to the territory, especially in the agricultural, livestock and fisheries sectors.

"We want to dream of transforming this region into a producer and market-supplying region, taking on the challenge ourselves, together with partners like the government, our diaspora and others, to resolve the issues that still constrain the development of these four municipalities," he stressed.

The newly-elected mayor also stressed that the decision taken today by the Fogo and Brava Intermunicipal Association to authorize the Governing Council to create a regional inter-municipal maritime transport company between these islands, which also connects with the southern axis of Cape Verde and with the tourist islands to transport products, is fundamental.

Because, in fact, the issue of maritime transport connecting CV Interilhas has greatly affected the development of this region's potential in the agricultural sector, in processing, in the livestock sector and in the fisheries and tourism sector.

In this sense, he stressed that similar to what happens between São Vicente and Santo Antão, they also want to introduce a commercial dynamic for the movement of people and goods and connectivity between Fogo and Brava and the rest of the Cape Verde islands.

"We are now going to do it because what we have obtained here is authorization for the Governing Council to analyse, go into depth, carry out feasibility studies, mobilize financial engineering with our diaspora and the friends of Fogo and Brava to set up a sustainable inter-municipal maritime transport company, which will respond to the enormous difficulties that we are going through today," he argued.

Not only because of the economic dimension that these two islands bring, but also because of the social dimension linked to the health sector, evacuations and connectivity, and the idea is for this company to be set up in partnership with the immigrants, but also in dialogue with the government to whom this proposal will be presented, which will solve the problem of transport.

"It's a short-term solution, we know that there are other larger initiatives for the long term and we will also be contacting these people to integrate this short-term solution and then leverage the whole subsequent process," he concluded.

Inforpress/End