the prime minister of Cape Verde, Ulisses Correia e Silva, admitted the possibility of the archipelago hosting an event from WebSummit, after meeting with Paddy Cosgrave, in Rio de Janeiro.
“I caught up with Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder of Web Summit, during Web Summit Rio. Paddy is a friend from Cape Verde and has visited our country before. We discussed the possibility of organizing a Web Summit on a smaller scale on the island of Sal, taking advantage of its tourism and innovation potential.”, announced Ulisses Correia e Silva, through a message on his official account on the social network Facebook.
"As Prime Minister, I attended every edition of the Web Summit and I believe that bringing this inspiring event to Cape Verde will help boost our entrepreneurial ecosystem and promote our nation on the global stage. We want to explore this opportunity and welcome technological and innovative leaders in Cape Verde”He added.
The head of the Cape Verdean government is in Brazil and participated on Wednesday in a lecture at the Web Summit, in which he sought to demonstrate the country's qualities to investors and digital nomads who want to settle on the island.
In addition to the presence of the Cape Verdean Prime Minister, the country is represented, since Monday, with two 'startups', through the "GoGlobal" program, operated by Cabo Verde Digital, in the country's first contact with the Latin American market Latin America in this sector at the Web Summit, which annually brings together entrepreneurs, 'startups', investors and leaders of technology companies from all over the globe in Lisbon, and which was extended for the first time to Brazil.
In February 2020, before the effects of the covid-19 pandemic, Paddy Cosgrave visited Praia and admitted to holding an event in Cape Verde in the universe of the technological conference dedicated to renewable energies, an area in which the country is a reference in Africa.
BUT: Web Summit Rio kicks off with Cape Verdean startups in the spotlight
He then met with the prime minister, a meeting that served, he explained at the end, to “talk about 'startups' and innovation”, bets defined by the executive led by Ulisses Correia e Silva.
Paddy Cosgrave highlighted that in this development process that is based on the objective of transforming Cape Verde into an international digital platform, the “critical ingredient will always be the next generation” and their training.
“I think initiatives designed to help the next generation get involved in innovation, particularly in programming, are fantastic. And teaching the younger ones almost as if it were a second language, from my point of view, is the right strategy, ”she admitted.
Asked by Lusa about holding a technological event in Cape Verde, the Irish entrepreneur admitted that he was studying this possibility, although on a country-wide scale, unlike the largest technology and entrepreneurship conference in the world, the Web Summit, which takes place annually in Lisbon.
"We do a lot of events around the world, people always think of the Web Summit, because it's so big, with 70.000 people, but we also organize a lot of events with 100 or 150 people. I think [Cape Verde] could be a fantastic location for an event with the right size and focus”, He explained.
With a penetration rate of energy production through renewable sources that in 2018 was 20,3% of the total and that has not stopped, mainly based on photovoltaic and wind generation, and the forecast to reach 100% in 2050, Paddy Cosgrave underlined that this could be precisely the motto of a conference in Cape Verde.
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