The Minister of Economy and Finance of Guinea-Bissau, Geraldo Martins, said the progress of economic growth of the country was positive and encouraging.

Geraldo Martins, cited by weekly newspaper “No Pintcha” this week, summarising activities carried out by his ministry in the last 12 months said that during the first year of governance economic growth and the collection of revenues were processed in a good way.

“Since 2014, economic growth has risen from 2 to 4.5 percent and we expect that by the end of 2015 it will reach 5 percent,” the Guinean minister said.

The most consistent way to increase revenues, according to the minister, is to stimulate economic growth in order to have greater tax revenues and at the same time improve the tax system and promote fiscal reform to cover everyone that should pay tax.

Martins recalled that that between 20 and 25 percent of revenues come from the regions outside the capital city, said that the government was strengthening the monitoring arrangements at borders in order to collect more revenue. He also acknowledged that the collection of revenue in the country’s regions was more complicated than in the capital, Bissau.

“A year ago we had the situation of suspended projects due to lack of funding, but we managed to reactivate many projects with the World Bank, such as projects in agriculture and energy, and we are preparing one in the area of submarine cables,” he said. (macauhub/GW)