The transformation agenda is a comprehensive long-term strategy for the development of Cape Verde’s economy premised on capitalizing on the few natural or comparative advantages of Cape Verde – ample ocean, geostrategic location, and a tropical climate. The agenda envisions transforming the Cape Verdean economy into a modern, high income and services economy based on new growth “clusters”. No cluster better illustrates this dynamic or is better positioned to take advantage of the strategic...
Agribusiness cluster is a key element of the transformation agenda. It is a cluster that the government has made substantial investments in recent years with the construction of dams to mobilize water for agriculture. Major efforts have also been made to facilitate the adoption of new technologies that have led to substantial increase in the number of acreage under irrigation. Production has increased substantially. The fact however is that agriculture in Cape Verde continues to face several...
There is a worldwide consensus today that innovative entrepreneurs and a robust private sector are the engines for competitiveness and national transformation, since entrepreneurship is first and foremost a question of value creation and the private sector is who competes in the global market. In short, entrepreneurship and private sector development are essential for the transformation of economies, enabling job creation, including self-employment, innovation and competitiveness, and...
Over the past ten years, Cape Verde embarked on the implementation of the economic transformation strategy. The government undertook significant reforms and invested substantial amounts of resources in infrastructure development (water mobilization, energy production, roads, airports, education, etc...). The government also made important reforms to improve the business environment and make Cape Verde a very attractive place for business.
Over the last decade and before the global economic crisis that started in 2008, Cape Verde was among the fastest growing economies in the world. The result is that Cape Verde became a lower middle-income country, having graduated from the United Nations list of Least Developed Countries in 2008. Between 1995 and 2007, for example, Cape Verde ranked among the top high growth economies in Africa; it ranked sixth in the top 17 growth performers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the crisis however...
In April 2003, the Government of Cape Verde held a Forum on Cape Verde’s Transformation Strategy. Eleven (11) years after implementation of this Strategy, the Government found it necessary to hold a second Forum, with the entire Cape Verdean society, to review the progress made and, from there, identify the strategy and actions to accelerate the transformation process.
The transformation agenda was a response to the need for economic diversification. Since its formulation, tourism has grown to become a dominant sector of the economy, currently representing over 20 percent of GDP and a major portion of services exports and foreign direct investment in Cape Verde. The fear now is that, despite the transformation agenda, Cape Verde will become a mono-economy, highly dependent on one sector (tourism).
Between 2001 and 2003, Cape Verde undertook a series of national reflections that culminated in the agenda for transformation that has guided development management in Cape Verde over the last decade. The transformation agenda aims to transform and diversify the economy of Cape Verde based utilizing the advantage of its strategic location. It is now ten years since the agenda was formulated. The reality now is that the country is eyeing more than economic transformation; it is now aiming to...
Cape Verde has made significant progress since its independence and in the last decade the pace of progress has been accelerated. In infrastructure, in economic diversification, in institutional and policy reforms, in education access, in social progress and reducing poverty and in achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs), Cape Verde has achieved major results.
