Sousa affirmed that the government’s target of double-digit annual growth will haqve to be spurred in part by public companies, which, like Enapor, have a fundamental role in the process. “This growth is being induced by tourism, by real estate and hotel investments, by the rapid increase in the flow of tourists to Cape Verde and by related activities. We need to respond to this growth with the same rhythm of development and modernization in all of the country’s infrastructure.”

It is in this sense that, according to the cabinet minister, with the exception of Porto Grande on the island of São Vicente, all of the country’s ports are in need of expansion and modernization. For this to occur, the government has established the objective of making Cape Verde a platform in the Atlantic for air and sea transportation that offers comfort for passengers. “Our program must respond to the objective of exploring the cruise tourism segment and integrating port areas into surrounding urban activities. We have also established the objective of improving port management efficiency, which means more equipment, organization and productivity.”

This will be possible, in Sousa’s opinion, with the transhipping port and deep water port in São Vicente, but also with the modernization of the ports of Praia, Palmeira, Porto Novo, Sal Rei, Vale dos Cavaleiros and Furna. Expansion work on these ports will have to be carried out over the next four years, but it will also be necessary to carry out studies for the modernization of the ports on Maio and São Nicolau, as well as complete institutional reforms with the privatization of port operations and the transformation of Enapor into an institution of a different nature.

Resources

The resources necessary for the execution of all of these projects approach 450 million US dollars, a sum the Minister of Infrastructure, Transportation and the Sea himself admits seems unrealistic. He believes, however, that a combination of donations (as is the case with the Praia sea port, in which the government has managed to guarantee a Build Operator Transfer), concession and commercial financing, it will be possible the mobilize a viable financial package for Enapor. “Without this, it would be difficult to accompany the rhythm the country is demonstrating, and we don’t want the country’s infrastructures or their absence to represent a constraint to its development. On the contrary, we’re anticipating investments and stimulating this growth.”

But Manuel Inocêncio Sousa is confident because, he affirms, nowadays Enapor is an economically and financially solid company, which gives the government reason to believe in its success. The Minister also believes that the company will take on another profile with the privatization of its port operations. “In the future, we would like to see an Enapor that is the owner of the country’s port infrastructures and is responsible for their conservation and development. The dice have been cast and we hope that the challenges are met so that we can give the port sector the contribution necessary to build this future that is visible today,” he concluded.

For Franklin Spencer, the president of Enapor’s administrative council, the company’s 25th anniversary should serve as an occasion for reflection on Cape Verde’s port sector and its history. “The government, conscious of the challenges to be faced in providing the country with a port on every island, reinforcing and modernizing the port sector by giving it increased responsibilities in the domain of authority, administration and port operations, created Enapor in September of 1982. There began a gradual process of the restructuring and organization of the system, which has allowed for a ruptureless transition,” he incidated.

Enapor, continued Spencer, conceived and implemented actions that led to the development of new organizational and managerial concepts, which translated into a modern and flexible structure adapted to the demands of the modern world.

Source: A Semana