Cape Verde’s recently created Investment and Tourism Agency can be a diplomatic tool to attract more foreign investment, said Júlio Morais, president of the committee leading the initiative, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Mr Morais was speaking during a ceremony on Wednesday to mark the committee taking office. He pledged to improve the nation’s business environment.

Mr Morais added – as quoted by Lusa – that the new investment agency would seek out “innovative” financing mechanisms from external sources in order to support local small- and medium-sized enterprises. He also said his team would work to diversify the source markets for tourists to Cape Verde, and to develop new sites for tourism in the country.

Cape Verde’s Minister of Tourism, Investments and Business Development, Leonesa Fortes, – who also took part in the ceremony, – said the new agency was part of a reform plan aimed at attracting more foreign investment as well as promoting domestic investment. The plan also aims to diversify the nation’s tourism sector and improve its quality, she added.

Cape Verde’s Investment and Tourism Agency was created by uniting two previously separate bodies. The new entity will have three regional offices in the country.