The new president of the CPLP Business Confederation, Marcos Rodrigues, today identified the lack of a financial instrument, transportation and training as the biggest obstacles to the development of the Lusophone community.

Marcos Rodrigues, who was elected this Tuesday for a four-year term, believes that the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) "has to move from words to deeds and to what is most important" and that, if there is a "tacit political understanding" between the CPLP member states, it is necessary to "move on to economic issues, which are what matter", he told Lusa.

"A development bank is very important for us to be able to create opportunities for companies and, without this instrument, each country 'per se' faces great difficulties," he said.

Vocational training and higher education, direct air and sea links between CPLP countries - "which is one of the great vectors of development and remains one of the biggest problems to be solved" - and the economic and financial instrument dedicated to Lusophone companies are the vehicle for "giving a new soul to the confederation and to the entrepreneurs" of the community, he said.

"If we want to place a product developed in Angola in Cape Verde, we don't have a direct boat line to make that connection. In air transport, we can't connect Cape Verde, Guinea, São Tomé, Angola and Mozambique via direct airlines, which means that people have to travel to Portugal to get to any of these destinations," he gave as an example.

"These are major bottlenecks that need to be resolved in the short term, because without economic activity in the space there really is no life in the CPLP," added the businessman.

These constraints can only be solved if the members of the CPLP "take on part of the responsibility, putting airlines from countries with more resources into partnerships with airlines from countries with fewer resources, in order to make the connections viable," suggested the current president of the Sotavento Chamber of Commerce and the Superior Council of Chambers of Commerce and Tourism in Cape Verde.

"For example, TAAG has enormous potential and could help countries like São Tomé, Guinea and Cape Verde; TAP also has this potential and already connects Portugal with the rest of the CPLP countries, but we lack inter-state connections between Africa. We need to achieve this goal quickly, both in maritime and air transport," he said, arguing that without transport, the financial instrument and training and education, there are "no conditions to materialize the development of the CPLP". (islands express)