private partners and foundations to crowd in financial and programmatic support for
advanced digital skills development in Cabo Verde.
Secondly, by creating a regulatory sandbox at the Techno Park, the country will be
encouraging further innovation and providing a testing Lab for harnessing disrupting
technologies (e.g., Internet of Things, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence) in support of
these industries. An incentive for start-ups, data-driven businesses and multi-national
companies to leverage the country for such purpose will be a data governance and
management deregulation while maintaining the principles of privacy and protection for
consolidating trust in Cabo Verde as digital platform.
Frequencies Release: Finally, it is critical for Cabo Verde to anticipate the arrival of 5G
and the possibilities for leapfrogging other regional countries for attracting related
investment and talents. It is therefore necessary to take important measures to free up the
frequencies for testing and scaling. Releasing the frequencies will enable investors to install
these networks and deploy the experimentation and proofs of concept. The logical next
step will be to develop effective partnerships between operators and use case verticals in
data-driven industries (i.e., transportation, media, education, etc.) to provide quality
services to citizens and tourists domestically and regionally.
D. Next Steps and Timeline
9.
The team will prepare a policy note in the next 10 weeks elaborating on the above findings
and articulating a set of recommendations. This note can serve as an initial work plan for potential
and concrete engagement actions on digital infrastructure. The draft note will be shared with the
stakeholders for inputs to finalize the policy recommendations pitch and agree on a dissemination
plan. We see an opportunity for dissemination in the planned engagement by the Ministry of
Finance with the public and private sectors during the May 2019 conference. Based on feedback
from various stakeholders, we look forward to receiving the Government’s insights on priority
areas to be included for the finalization of the Country Partnership Framework (CPF). The
emphasis is on creating favorable conditions to build connectivity and ICT sector with the aim of
driving investment, job creation and economic diversification in Cabo Verde through accelerated
digital transformation.
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