Namibia learns from Seychelles’ experience in the Blue Economy sector |23 September 2022

The two delegations in a souvenir photograph

The Blue Economy department is this week hosting a delegation from Namibia who is in Seychelles on a working visit.

The Namibian delegation is being led by the executive director from the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Annely Haiphene. She is accompanied by six key personnel with a background in Environment Regulations, Law, Fisheries Monitoring, Compliance, Policy Planning and Economics.

The department of the Blue Economy headed by the principal secretary, Kenneth Racombo, on Monday met with the Namibian delegation. The main aim of the meeting was to go over past and ongoing projects and initiatives of the department of the Blue Economy of Seychelles and to share best practices so as to help the Namibian delegation further expand on their Blue Economy initiatives.

Following the meeting with the department of Blue Economy, the Namibian delegation met with several stakeholders related to the field of Blue Economy as well.

Namibia is in the process of developing a National Blue Economy Policy, and it recognises and appreciates the fact that Seychelles has made substantial progress in this field. This has prompted the Namibian representatives to partner with Seychelles to learn from best practices, to enrich its policy, and develop a practical implementation action plan for it.

Ms Haiphene noted that they have been impressed with all that Seychelles has been able to achieve and they understand clearly why Seychelles holds the title of ‘Blue Economy Champion in Africa’.

The series of meetings concluded on a hopeful note, and with a hope that the existing partnership between Seychelles and Namibia will be strengthened through such a collaboration and through all future projects moving forward.

Press release from the Blue Economy department