Praia, Cape Verde, 15 July – The government of Cape Verde said Monday it would invest 300 million euros in the port sector on the islands of Fogo, Sal, Santiago, Boavista, Sao Vicente and Santo Antao, adding that a new airport would also be built on the latter.

The measures were announced by Cape Verde’s Prime Minister, José Maria Neves, during a visit to the north of the archipelago, and he noted that the investments included expanding and modernising the ports of Porto Novo (Santo Antao), Praia (Saniago), Vale dos Cavaleiros (Fogo), Boa Vista (Boavista) and Palmeiras (Sal).

In the case of the port of Porto Novo, the work will begin this year, according to Cape Verde’s Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Telecommunications, Manuel Inocêncio Sousa, who accompanied Neves on the trip to Santo Antao for the launch of a new package of roads, to the value of 20 million euros.

In the last few years the Cape Verdean government has been implementing a programme of modernisation of road, port and airport facilities as part of which it has so far invested over 600 million euros.

The new airport in Santo Antao, an island that so far has no airport, will be built on the outskirts of the Ponte Sul area, 7 kilometres from the city of Porto Novo, said Sousa, adding that the project had already been designed and that work would begin before 2010. (macauhub)