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Facilities for the elderly on track? Coga questions |05 July 2019

The committee on government assurances of the National Assembly yesterday called in principal secretary for social affairs Linda William-Melanie, chief executive of the Agency for Social Protection Marcus Simeon, chief executive of the Council for the Elderly Marie-France Pereira and chief executive of Seychelles Investment Board Cindy Vidot for an update on an announcement made by President Danny Faure during a State of the Nation address in 2018 for facilities for the elderly to be constructed and managed by the private sector.

As per the announcement, the concept of a day centre for adults permits for elderly people to have a place to spend time together in a group with people to take care of them. Land will be put at the disposal of the private sector so they can construct and manage day centres, elderly homes and nursing homes and the state will pay for the service, while businesses that establish facilities for elderly care before 2021, will not pay business taxes for the first 10 years of their existence.

The day centre is aimed towards elderly persons who are still physically independent while the other two establishments apply to elderly persons who require some level of care.

PS William-Melanie noted that even if an establishment is designated as a nursery home or an elderly home, investors should be open to offering day services for elderly persons.

PS William-Melanie remarked that the ministry has been in discussion with the Ministry of Habitat, Infrastructure and Land Transport (MHILT) regarding the plots for these establishments.

“From our consultations, we had different drafts and we finalised the draft last year and the framework was approved by Cabinet in October 2018. Meanwhile, with MHILT, the plots have been allocated in Beau Vallon, Grand Anse and Ile Perseverance on Mahé. MHILT has told us that they were looking into allocating a plot in Baie St Anne on Praslin,” PS William-Melanie noted.

MHILT has granted parcel V10097 measuring 51163m2 located at Beau Vallon at a leasing cost of R118,000 annually, a second plot of 3046m2 at R95,500 annually, a third at Perseverance H2740 measuring 1877m2 at R67,700 annually. Two parcels have been amalgamated on Praslin to measure 4065m2 at a cost of R34,000 annually.

Regarding the possibility of such an establishment in south Mahé, PS William-Melanie noted that there is a possibility of acquiring more plots in future from MHILT but that owners of private property can also construct on private land as per the established standards.

According to PS William-Melanie, regulations are being drawn up to give powers to the Council for the Elderly to have an overseeing role over these three types of facilities. An expression of interest will be launched by the Seychelles Investment Board (SIB) soon and it is expected that the establishments will be in place by 2021.

Mr Simeon assured the committee of the necessity of such establishments referring to recently published statistics about Seychelles’ ageing population and the need to find more sustainable alternatives to the home-carer service.

Mrs Pereira further elaborated on the home-carer scheme stating that home-carers will be trained and developed to be able to provide the level of care to elderly patients in such establishments. A committee has been established to revise and review the service and to implement the basic care and specialised care training.

Speaking of the benefits to investors of investing in such projects, Miss Vidot stated that the government is somehow subsidising the projects by offering to investors affordable prices for land, tax cuts for a decade and by offering to pay for a proportion of elderly persons.

Investors will be required to abide by strict minimum standards pertaining to infrastructure and level of care. Investors will also have to satisfy a quota regarding elderly persons whose use of such establishments are funded by the state, although they may also offer such services to private paying clients.

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