Cape Verde’s beaches will be rehabilitated, according to an announcement made by Prime Minister José Maria Neves this Friday following a meeting with the Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg, Jean Assel Born, on the island of Sal. The project is one of the investments included in the new package of the Indicative Cooperation Program, budgeted at 60 million Euros. The signing of the new package will take place on July 7 in Praia, where the two governments will officially commit themselves to a new phase in cooperation. This time, Luxembourg will make 60 million Euros available, some 15 million more than in the last program, to be invested in various sectors such as education, professional training, health and sanitation.

The environmental sector is one of the new areas of cooperation in this ICP. All of Cape Verde’s beaches will be rehabilitated, and in this investment alone some 12 million Euros will be channeled. A sand production structure will also be set up to satisfy the demands of the civil construction industry in yet another environmental preservation measure.

Another innovation of the new package announced by José Maria Neves is three-way cooperation between Cape Verde, Luxembourg and São Tomé and Príncipe. In other words, a part of the funds from the Indicative Cooperation Program will go toward supporting the mostly destitute Cape Verdean communities in São Tomé and Príncipe, which for its part, according to Neves, will determine the mechanisms for the elaboration of the intervention program with the Cape Verdean community there.

José Maria Neves announced a visit to Cape Verde next Tuesday by the Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe to participate in negotiations in Praia.

Jean Assel Born is participating as a special guest at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Summit on the island of Sal.