Prime Minister Luís Montenegro claimed that "Cape Verde is a priority partner for Portugal, it was therefore simple to have a motto for this Summit, as one word suffices and says it all: Together", at the joint press conference with the Prime Minister of Cape Verde Ulisses Correia e Silva at the end of the Summit between both countries.

"Together for the future, to deepen our proximity and fraternal relations, whether at the Government level or, above all, at the people’s level", he added.

Luís Montenegro claimed that "this is a historical summit" as "a series of instruments" were signed "that are the foundation for us to meet in the coming years, in practically all fields under our responsibility, many of the aspirations of both the Portuguese and the Cape Verdean".

Underlining the convergence between the two countries, he said that it "begins in bilateral relations, it includes cooperation at multilateral organisations, starting with the CPLP and, especially, the preferential strategic and close relation that Cape Verde has with the European Union today, where Portugal has double the commitment as well as in the Atlantic Alliance". 

"It is from combining all these dimensions that we embody a cooperation that is excellent, a relation that is irreplaceable, and the response to many of our societies’ desires", he said.

30 agreements

The Prime Minister indicated the high number of agreements, 30, whose work began during his visit in April last year, noting those through which the Governments intervene "positively in people’s lives, offering them more opportunities, fostering their qualifications and placing them at the service of collective development".

But more than just a number of agreements, "we want their relevance to be the capacity of enforce them", "embodying our talks and the documents that come from them".

Luís Montenegro also stated that "both Governments’ commitment is to look at the coming years as years of economic development and growth, and the generation of wealth" that creates jobs, good wages, and money "to ensure defence, justice, security, and access to fundamental goods: health, education, mobility, housing". 

Economy 

On this matter, he noted the "opening of a new credit line for private enterprises’ investment". "We are not just cooperating between the two countries’ central administrations, we are fostering private initiative", he said, adding that the 100 million euros agreed on can be compared to the last credit line of 30 million euros, signed in 2017; "we more than tripled that amount".

He also noted "the extension and reinforcement of the debt conversion into green investment programme from Cape Verde to Portugal", which will be 42.5 million euros by 2030, "tripling the previous amount, which was 12 million".

With these two instruments, "we are looking at innovation, attracting investment, and responsibility towards environmental sustainability, the economy’s decarbonisation, producing clean energy, as well as instruments to grant companies more competitiveness, lowering energy costs" and contributing to fighting climate change, he said.

Luís Montenegro also referred to vocational training via the assistance to the Vocational Training Centres of Excellence in Cape Verde, which will enable two outcomes: "boosting human capital in Cape Verde to make its economy more competitive, and the Cape Verdean emigrants who embrace the project to help Portugal", "so they can do so with the skills the market requires, with employability guarantees and the social and labour protection that ensures their full integration, "leading to regulated emigration that unites searching opportunities with decent hosting".

Integration

"The Cape Verdean community is very well integrated in Portugal and overall we have an incredibly high level of satisfaction, both in what the Portuguese people feel and what the Cape Verdean people feel", so much so that "great part of this community takes on dual nationality out of their own willingness", he stated.

When there are incidents, "the sense of accountability and valuing what matters most is more necessary so we do not succumb to demagogy, populism, or even extremism of some positions", he added.

The Prime Minister also stated "the Portuguese Government’s satisfaction in hosting this summit and being able to pay back the hospitality which was extended to me in my first official visit outside Europe, to Cape Verde" in April of last year. That was when "the works that led to signing these 30 agreements today" began.