The Presidents of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe agreed on the need to implement agreements that are still pending and on Cape Verde’s support to São Tomé’s application to become a Middle Income Country.
Visiting Cape Verde until Thursday (16), the President of São Tomé and Príncipe, Carlos Vila Nova, believes that his stay in Cape Verde will serve to share experiences where his country hopes to learn from the path of Cape Verde in some matters, such as the graduation of the archipelago to a Middle Income Country.
“During this visit, I will closely follow this process so that everything that can waste our time and focus on what is essential in this path is eliminated,” he said.
José Maria Neves highlighted that there are several agreements already signed between the two governments, foreseeing intense work to remove the existing obstacles, pointing out Cape Verde’s availability to support São Tomé and Príncipe‘s intention to raise its international graduation.
According to the Cape Verdean leader, a negotiation process with the international community began when his country rose to the middle-income category in 2007 and 2008.
“There was a five-year transition period between 2008 and 2013 so that the country could adapt to new realities and contexts,” he said.
José Maria Neves assured that Cape Verde has the know-how that can work with São Tomé and Príncipe so that it can also successfully carry out its transition process to Middle Income Country.
“And it is already a gain and a reason for pride, but we have to prepare ourselves so that there is no regression,” he maintained, quoted by Lusa.
With information from Forbes