[2020-01-21] Cabo Verde’s ports to be handed over to private managers

Source: Macauhub

The ports of Cabo Verde and its port services will be privatised, and the process is due to be launched by the end of the first half of the year or the beginning of the next half, according to broadcaster RFI citing statements from the minister of Maritime Economy.

Paulo Lima Veiga also said that the government has been in talks with several countries in order to find the strategic partner to manage the ports of the archipelago.

The current government of Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva in 2017 cancelled the international tender for the sub-concession of four major ports in Cabo Verde, which had been handed over to French group Bolloré by the government of PAICV (African Party for the Independence of Cabo Verde).

The idea at the time was that the model of the sub-concession, previously adopted for the exploration of the main ports of Cabo Verde, did not meet the demands of the new vision and strategy set out for the sector.

The international tender for the sub-concession of the main ports of Cabo Verde was launched on 15 July 2015, splitting them into two blocks, the first made up of the ports of Praia and Mindelo and the second of the ports of Palmeira and Sal-Rei, Sal and Boa Vista, respectively.

The Bolloré group was the only company to submit a technical and financial bid for the sub-concession of the first block, and no proposals were made for the block including the ports of Palmeira and Sal-Rei, Sal and Boa Vista.

RFI also said the Cape Verdean government had hired a consulting firm to propose a better model to launch the international tender for port services in Cabo Verde.