MANUEL CHANTRE President of BCN

Cape Verde has achieved tremendous success in the past thirty years since its independence. What would you say has been the driving force behind Cape Verde's success?

The independence itself is the critical event that explains this success. The nation's energy was released with its independence. The Cape Verdean people today are the result of hundreds of years of process. As a Portuguese colony it was administrated from Lisbon and Amilcar Cabral said that only after independence would our people come into history. There was no Cape Verdean history before independence, and that is why independence released all the energy. Differently from all the other colonies, national awareness existed before independence. Cape Verdeans knew that they were a different people already; they had created a language: Creole. They had their own culture, literature, music, and with independence we got political freedom. We are still at dawn, and there is a saying that the sun never sets at dawn. That is why we relate everything we do to this process. The result is that we have managed, with hardly any natural resources and ten small islands, as a people to resist for hundreds of years. This is why we believe that we can build our future, especially when the advancement of technology and knowledge of economies allow people to do whatever they want to do. From nothing, they can create something based on knowledge and technology. The people are the main resource. We are very proud and optimistic.

BCN just started in October of last year. It is the first and only 100% Cape Verdean-owned financial institution. What do you see as your greatest challenges and opportunities?

The first threat comes from the fact that we are the first experience in national banking. We are a start-up and we are aware of the threats that come associated with this kind of situation. In this banking area we are small and we need to obtain the scale to grow. We are newcomers in this sector, though not individually as there is a lot of banking knowledge in our organisation. We are forming an executive committee of professionals from the banking sector. But we need to elaborate on this new approach of being a Cape Verdean bank. This business is an international business and we need to create a Cape Verdean base to ensure that we can face and solve problems in all the areas that face the development of the country. Previously, private financial institutions had their decision centre outside the country. This is the first institution where the decision centre is inside the country; the other banks belong to Portuguese companies. In a way, it is related to the idea of national independence.

The government wishes to establish Cape Verde as an international financial hub. What do you think are the major milestones in establishing Cape Verde as a centre for international finance?

There is a strong desire from the government, but we know that there are already financial hubs in the world that took time to be created: Hong Kong, Singapore, London. The image of the City of London is the basic example for everyone. It took centuries to establish London as a financial centre. We know that there are some capabilities resulting from the functional positioning of the islands, between Africa, the Americas and Europe. At the moment that is all we have, along with the willingness of the people to participate. First of all, we already have a modern telecommunication system. We still need to create some infrastructure in transport and air transport, which is on the way. We have a set of legislation that makes it easier for investors considering Cape Verde as a financial hub. We are in the beginning of creating a stock market. We have most of the basic conditions required to become a financial hub, but there is still a lot to be done. I believe that the process is already in progress.

The government also wishes to strengthen the private sector, and this is something that BCN is addressing carefully. What are the greatest assets and liabilities of Cape Verde to make its private sector a competitive one?

We are betting on this area, because it has not been very well cared for by the existing banks. We know that we need to promote entrepreneurship in Cape Verde. One of the basic handicaps we have had is that we have had centuries of a survival economy, where people care more for security than risk-taking. We have to educate the market and the players in this risk-taking. There are things that have to be done; we have to create support to allow people to take the risk adequate to their level of savings. This is a country where the people are used to emigration; when they have difficulties they emigrate to look for something abroad. The fact that we have passed from a lesser-developed country to a middle-income country is very important. That is why the Cape Verdean bank was born at the moment when we felt that there was a different stage starting. We think that this optimism supported by the strategy of the bank to promote local Cape Verdean entrepreneurship will make a great contribution. We need to assist people to prepare their projects in order to reduce risk. We need to create some long-term financing that takes into consideration the situation from which we depart.

Due to this trend of emigration, a large part of the economy is accounted for by remittance advices. What is BCN doing to address this incoming cash flow? Are you going to develop services for the diaspora?

The diaspora has been one of our main concerns from the beginning. My partners and I went to Washington to meet the representatives of the communities there. We often go to Portugal, we're creating an office in Rotterdam, and we've been to Paris. We actually started the bank with 20 shareholders and 10 of them are from abroad, from the diaspora. We really represent the Cape Verdean people by this structure. There are problems with this because the method used to capture funds is costly. We need to improve our rate of transformation of these funds into credit so that we can create a better balance between the costs and the revenues generated. There is now a change in attitude. Many Cape Verdeans that are based abroad now have some savings and they are willing to find ways to invest back into the country. This is a different stage, and we need to develop products and services that can satisfy those needs. That is one of the reasons why we moved into these new facilities, so that we have better capacity to respond to these new needs. We intend to grow, not only by competing with the other bigger banks, but also by attacking the new markets in particular.

In terms of foreign investors who are not necessarily from the diaspora, what kind of services do you provide for them?

We want to be a one-stop shop for foreign investors by providing relevant information on business opportunities and help them deal more effectively with public administration. We want to provide services to facilitate investment, but also to contribute to the country. We want to become a more investor-friendly destination, and we have the capacity. We have people here from investment agencies, the Central Bank, and from a wide range of investment-related activities. We are also installing state-of-the-art banking and telecommunication systems.

As you said, Cape Verde is at the dawn of its existence. What do you think lies in the immediate future of Cape Verde? How far do you think Cape Verde can go?

I believe that the consolidation of the democratic system is critical. Most of the achievements that you see today are directly related to the second phase process, which started in 1991 when we changed the system to a multi-party democratic system. The political stability is in itself one of the bases for the development. We need to enhance a culture of democracy and freedom; we are still in the process. For the future to become ascendant, we need to have a basic agreement on the national strategic objectives. We need both parties to understand this, that alternation is basic for the system. This is still not accepted in the minds of some people.

Closely linked to this is good governance, which has resulted in the award of the Millennium Challenge Account for Cape Verde. As a businessman, what comments do you have on this?

I think it is a fair recognition of what has been achieved. If you compare the government in Cape Verde with that of other places, you can see that there is a commitment from the successive governments to basic ethics. This is a commitment of the government to the people. All the parties are conscious of this. However, if we don't cultivate a political system that guarantees alternation, this could be lost. That is why I'm saying that political alternation is basic for the continuation of good governance. This is critical because we still need cooperation from abroad, although we are trying to create an economy that is more self-sustained. By educating our people and investing in our human resources, we can maximise the economic potential of Cape Verde.