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. One concrete outcome is the graduation of Cape Verde from the United Nations list of Least Developed Countries. Cabo Verde became a middle-income country and has reduced poverty from 37% in 2001 to about 24% now.
These are major achievements. But as Cape Verde has made progress on many fronts in the last decade new challenges have also emerged or are emerging. The key fact is that on my fronts Cape Verde has done well.