Cidade da Praia, Cape Verde, 17 May - Cape Verde’s foreign minister, Victor Borges, began an official visit to China Wednesday during which it is expected that Beijing will announce the pardoning of the archipelago’s 3.6 million euro debts, officials said.

A communiqué from the Cape Verde Foreign Ministry said Borges’ China trip has been made at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart and aims to “put relations between the two states on a new level that goes beyond simple cooperation/aid.”

“China has today become one of the most important development partners of Cape Verde and proof of this are various projects, of special note in the areas of health, rural and urban infrastructures, staff training, granting of equipment and ad hoc emergency food aid,” added the official Praia statement.

The Beijing visit of Cape Verde’s top diplomat will also be used to develop bilateral economic and business relations, particularly through the creation of mixed-capital companies, said the communiqué.

Borges will also travel to the Chinese provinces of Sanya and Shenzhen for talks with local leaders. From China, he travels to Macau for various meetings including talks with the permanent secretariat of the China-Lusophone Economic and Business Cooperation Forum, based in the former Portuguese enclave city.

He will also meet officials from the Macau Foundation and hold talks with the Chinese territory’s government chief, Edmund Ho. Cape Verde weekly A Semana reported that China will grant Praia an aid donation of around 30 million yuan, equal to the debt being pardoned, to be used for new investments in the archipelago.

Source: macauhub