China increases foreign aid in 2012
The most prioritised is the transformation of the Cabnave shipyard into a support base for international shipping fleets, the national airline TACV and the power company Elektra. The Cape Verdean shipyard Cabnave or Estaleiros Navais de Cabo Verde has been struggling for years for modernisation. It is today near privatisation and the choice partner is the China Overseas Fisheries Company or CNFC. Sources close to the government said that the privatisation plan which begun in 2008 is taking time "because the Cape Verdean government is doing a lot of thinking on how much control it is prepared to give the Chinese in the management of the shipyard." One can say that, in Cape Verde - the "No stress" land, progress can wait.
The Chinese company CNFC operates some 250,000 fishing vessels off the west coast of Africa between Morocco and Sierra Leone. The servicing and repairs of these vessels would provide higher revenues. Alongside the Chinese partnership, the Cape Verdean government also wants to establish with Spain a partnership in the fishing sector by modernising the Interbase refrigeration unit for the storage of frozen fish and crustaceans for further export to other countries. The most important actor in the maritime sector is China Ocean Shipping Group or COSCO, which is working in partnership with state-owned port authority Enapor.
Cape Verde is also a candidate to host one of the five "economic cooperation zones" that China plans to establish in Africa, according to a report by Leo Horta. Sao Vicente is the likely candidate as a "special economic zone" primarily as a major fisheries processing center to service the Chinese fishing fleets opoerating in the Atlantic. Accordingly, China also plans to make the island a "transit point for replenishment and logistical support to thousands of Chinese ships crossing the South Atlantic for Europe." On the other side of South Atlantic, China is heavily investing in Brazilian ports such as Salvador in the state of Bahia.
An important lesson with the Chinese small shopkeepers arrival in Cape Verde is that, they have become the economic motor especially in the more interior islands less travelled by ships and planes. It was the small businesses that led the way for the larger companies to follow. Another lesson being underlined is that, some Chinese are not always after raw materials and fast profit from resource-rich African countries with despotic rulers. China has shown adapability to well-governed countries with little natural resources such as Cape Verde.
Chinese fishing group CNFC to build refrigerated warehouse
China National Fisheries Corp
or CNFC announced its plan to build a refrigerated warehouse in Sao Vicente for its fish harvest in the Atlantic ocean, the Cape Verdean state port company announced last year. It will be a 2,000 sq.m. area located in the container area of the Mindelo port, based on an agreement started in 2008. According to CNCF, its vessels uploaded around 2,461 tons lof fish during the first half of 2012. The contract is for one year and is renewable with the condtion that the Chinese company " may not in this location carry out any other activities or services that are not compatible with those indicated in the contract.
This project is ongoing and it is hard to say at this point, how long it will take to complete it. As most other foreign investment projects offered to Cape Verde, the waiting time is long and tiring and in most cases, resource-draining, meaning that investment money has dried out before permits and licenses have been approved.#
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