Report CR-A-219-B - Cabo Verde Estudo do Sector Agrícola

A. A Singularidade de Cabo Verde Cabo Verde e unica entre a familia de na90es. ~ uma republica de ilhas (Fig. 1.1) suficientemente distanciadas umas das outras e do continente africano (600 km) para dissuadir visitas imprevistas ou fortuitas. Seu isolamento serviu para fortalecer sua singular cultura crioula, porem a cllsta de contactos frequentes com influencias e inforrna90es externas. Cabo Verde e muito pequeno. Sua popula9ao de 300.000 habitantes, que mal chegaria para tornar uma cidade auto-suficiente num complexo industrial, esta dividida entre nove ilhas. A capital, Praia, conta somente com 23.000 habitantes, e e, essencialmente, urna pequena e simpatica cidade onde a maior parte dos vercursos pode ser feita a pe e onde encontros casuais entre funcionarios do governo sao provavelmente tao irnportantes quanto os formais meios de comunica9ao pelo telefone ou por escrito. Cabo Verde e tambem pequeno ern termos de area territorial, embora ocupe urna area relativamente grande de ocea~o. Sua superficie total e pouco mais de 4.000 km2 , porem suas nove ilhas principais estao espalhadas por uma POr9aO grande, quadrangular, do Atlantico medindo aproximadamente 240 qUilometros de urn lado. A superficie total (nao incluindo partes da plataforma continental que se estende para alem do litoral externo das ilhas) e comparavel as republicas de Togo ou Sri Lanka, ou cerca de metade da Guatemala. A nao ser pelo servi90 de barcas entre Fogo e Brava, e entre Sao Vicente e Santo Antao, as ilhas estao demasiado distantes entre si para urn conveniente transporte maritimo. Avioes sao, portanto, essenciais as comunica90es e trafego entre as ilhas, embora para transac90es lentas e volurnosas 0 transporte maritimo, seja por embarca90es a vela ou a motor, e sempre urna alternativa devido aos ventos constantes e condi90es atmosfericas geralmente boas.

Cape Verde - Diagnostic Trade Inttegration study Update - 2013

This Report is an update of the Cape Verde Diagnostic Trade Integration Study, titled Cape Verde’s Insertion into the Global Economy, produced and validated by the Government of Cape Verde in December 2008. Like the previous 2008 study, this Cape Verde Diagnostic Trade Integration Study Update provides a critical examination of the major institutional and production constraints that hinder Cape Verde’s ability to capitalize fully on the growth and welfare gains from its integration into the world economy. As a policy report, this study offers a set of priority policies and measures that can be implemented by both the public and private sectors to mitigate and surmount these supply side and institutional constraints. These recommendations are summarized in an Action Matrix. The Report is fruit of the generous support of the multi-donor program the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF). In every crisis there is an opportunity. Four years after the validation of the country’s first Diagnostic Trade Integration Study in 2008, Cape Verde finds itself in a drastically altered external environment. Cape Verde faces a worsened external environment than four years ago, when it was also traversing years of crisis as global food and energy prices escalated. Just as the country was validating its first trade study in late 2008, and celebrating its graduation from the list of Least Developed Countries, the onset of the deepest global recession in recent memory triggered an even worse external situation as the country’s principal source of markets, investments, remittances and aid, the Eurozone, unraveled economically and politically. As the Eurozone crisis spread, it was Cape Verde’s misfortune that the crisis contaminated precisely its biggest Eurozone partners and donors, such as Portugal, Spain and Italy. For such a highly dependent and exposed economy like that of Cape Verde, the deteriorating external sector has had a substantial negative impact on its macroeconomic performance. At the time of the validation workshop and graduation in 2008, no one could have foreseen or predicted the severity of the global crisis that followed. Despite traversing these years of adversity and external shocks, and suffering palpable setbacks, Cape Verde’s economy had proven surprisingly resilient, especially its principal sector, tourism. To its great credit, the country’s economic fundamentals are solid, and have been carefully and prudently managed over the years. For this reason alone, the country has thus far weathered the global and Eurozone crisis. Yet the near and medium term future remains uncertain. The country’s margin for maneuver has narrowed, its options far more limited, and hard choices lie ahead. Thus, there is no better time than now to analyze Cape Verde’s position in the global economy, and to examine the many challenges and opportunities it faces. The first diagnostic trade study outlined an ambitious agenda and set of policy strategies to enhance Cape Verde’s participation in the global economy. Written prior to the global crisis, the study did not, and could not, anticipate the scope and depth of the subsequent global and Eurozone crises. A few short months before the validation of the first DTIS Cape Verde joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). It has spent these four years adjusting to this status and implementing its commitments. At the same time, the country seeks greater economic integration with the European Union. Since 2008 the government has been investing heavily in the country’s economic infrastructure, focusing especially on fostering transformation in key sectors like agriculture, fisheries, tourism and creative industries. For these and many other reasons, it is both timely and urgent to review the road traveled since 2008. It is an opportune moment to reassess the country’s options, to rethink strategies, and to chart a new way forward that it is practical, implementable, and that builds on the country’s competitive advantages and current successes.