Seychelles delegation attends Focac’s coordinators’ meeting |26 June 2019

Ambassador Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, Minister for Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning, led a high-level delegation at the coordinators’ meeting on the implementation of the follow-up actions of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held from June 24-25, 2019 in Beijing.

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) is the main mechanism that coordinates bilateral cooperation between China and the African states.

In his remarks, Minister Loustau-Lalanne welcomed the continued support from China for the various programmes and projects funded under the Focac mechanism that have positively contributed towards the socio-economic and infrastructure development of Seychelles and other African countries.

He expressed Seychelles’ appreciation for the inclusion of various areas of cooperation in the new Focac Action Plan (2019–2021) that are closely linked to the sustainable development policies of Seychelles, such as blue economy, marine cooperation, climate change, green development plans and tourism, amongst others.

“These fields are important to small island developing states because for us, the ocean and a clean environment are some of the key issues vital for our socio-economic development,” emphasised the Minister Loustau-Lalanne.

The current Focac mechanism is guided by the Focac Beijing Action Plan (2010–2021) that was adopted by heads of states from African countries and China during the 2018 Focac Beijing Summit that took place in Beijing from September 3-4, 2018.

Only recently on June 19, 2019, Vice-President Vincent Meriton, who is also responsible for the department of foreign affairs, and the Chinese Ambassador in Seychelles, Guo Wei, signed a new grant agreement of 150 million Yuan (R300 million). The grant is part of the Focac 2019-2021 Action Plan.

To note that under the Focac, the cooperation between China and African countries continues to grow through more increased investment, trade, infrastructure development and people to people exchanges.

The Seychelles delegation also comprised of Dr Marina Confait, principal secretary at the department of foreign affairs; Vivianne Fock Tave, Seychelles’ resident Ambassador in Beijing and other staff from the department of foreign affairs of Seychelles and the embassy in Beijing.