SS Payet discusses achievements of blue bond with President Faure |26 June 2019
SS Payet discusses achievements of blue bond with President Faure
Secretary of state for Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning, Patrick Payet has said the 2019 Best Sustainable Finance Solution Award he received at this year’s Treasury Today’s Adam Smith Awards in London represents a great honour for him and a great achievement for Seychelles.
He said this after paying a courtesy call on President Danny Faure who congratulated him for his achievement and for honouring Seychelles on the international scene.
SS Payet received the award along with other overall and highly commended category winners during the celebratory Adam Smith Awards gala presentation held on June 20 at the prestigious Plaisterers’ Hall in London.
“It’s a great honour to receive this Adam’s Smith Award especially as there were 244 nominations from 30 countries and Seychelles as a small island state was able to achieve such a success,” Mr Payet said. He noted that the achievement for the award was due to hard work, devotion and dedication from staff of the Ministry of Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning and also from staff from the department of the blue economy in connection with other local and international stakeholders. He thanked them dearly.
“To receive such an award especially in front of so many other recipients shows you that as a small country we can do several things that other economies in the world can learn from us,” SS Payet said. Other countries which also won such an award on the African continent were Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia.
Mr Payet said he and President Faure discussed the concretisation, the structure and achievements of the blue bond for the past two years; the different countries that have requested Seychelles’ assistance and also how Seychelles can showcase the blue bond experience worldwide thus portraying us on the world map.
Through the innovative blue bond concept, Seychelles looks to address sustainability in the fishing sector. The blue bond concept is unique to Seychelles in the world at the moment.
Best Sustainable Finance Solution is a new category for the 2019 Adam Smith Award that recognises the steps companies and organisations are taking to address the environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues when arranging finance. Solutions could include sustainable funds, green bonds, impact investing, active ownership and credits for sustainable projects. Finance related to the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change also qualifies.
It also serves as the ultimate industry benchmark for corporate treasury achievement and showcases the successes of treasurers, chief financial officers, finance directors and their teams in placing corporate treasury in the spotlight.
“We want to ensure that the marine resources that we have can be sustainable for future generations. So when we’ve worked on the blue bond concept we have ensured that at least there will be a grant component for research on new projects and a loan component once the research is over and the project is feasible for implementation as a business,” SS Payet further said, noting that the grant and loan from the blue bond concept are for new projects in the fisheries sector only.
The Seychelles' Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT) has been allocated with US $3 million to provide grant assistance while the Seychelles Development Bank (DBS) has been allocated with US $12 million to be disbursed as loan for the blue bond concept. The money from international donors was disbursed in October 2018 for a five-year period.