"To make the best possible use of the capabilities that Angola has, in terms of air resources, of planes, and the capabilities that Cape Verde has in terms of airport management, of aircraft management, the capabilities that Cape Verde has in terms of having achieved over the years to be certified to fly to spaces where Angola has not been able to", said the President, after meeting with the Cape Verdean prime minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, during the state visit he is making to the archipelago .
"We are going to combine the capabilities of the two countries in this field of civil aviation and I believe that we will all benefit from this", said João Lourenço.
At the Government Palace, the head of state and the Cape Verdean prime minister attended the signing of an agreement between the administrations of the state-owned airlines of the two countries for the leasing, by TAAG, of a Boeing 737-700 , Transportes Aéreos de Cabo Verde (TACV), an aircraft that arrived in Praia and will guarantee the medium-haul connections of the archipelago.
"We thought to go further, to form a 'joint-venture' between TAAG and TACV to, with TAAG aircraft, and based on the city of Praia or the city of Sal - this detail passed me by, which is important is that the base will be Cape Verde - from here, we will operate to various capitals in the West African region, known as ECOWAS, and also continue not only to Europe, but also to the United States of America", stated João Lourenço.
The President met in the early afternoon, at the Government Palace, in Praia, with the Cape Verdean prime minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva. On the same occasion, in the presence of João Lourenço and Ulisses Correia e Silva, legal documents were signed in the field of air transport, as well as an Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments, involving both governments.
At the same ceremony, which marked the presentation of the conclusions of the meeting of the VIII Joint Commission of the two countries – the first in 14 years – a Bilateral Agreement on Air Services was signed between the two governments, a Memorandum of Understanding on Air Transport between the Transport ministries of the two countries, and a Technical Cooperation Memorandum between the Civil Aviation Agency of Cape Verde (AAC) and the National Civil Aviation Authority of Angola (ANAC).
"Fourteen years is a lifetime. And it was in recognition of this flaw, which had to be corrected, that we held this meeting (...) The results are good and we believe that from now on the future will be bright for our two countries", said Joao Lourenco.
Ulisses Correia e Silva underlined the "pragmatic sense" of the new understandings with Angola, which aim to create a "favorable climate" for investments between the two countries.
"We are strongly interested in making this journey step by step, safely, with ambition and with results. And in several other areas", stated Ulisses Correia e Silva.
"While in the transport sector we managed to take very concrete steps in a short time, with results that we will start to see in the coming days, the same is not the case with other areas of cooperation, which we would also like to develop. our Transport Ministers, how did they achieve this feat of making an old dream come true and extending it to other domains. For the domain of tourism, maritime transport and others, of Public Administration", said João Lawrence.
The head of state arrived in Praia on Sunday and started the official program of the state visit to Cape Verde this Tuesday, repaying the one carried out last January by the Cape Verdean President, José Maria Neves, to Luanda.
