Chinese embassy contributes towards ‘Business Incubator’ pilot project |17 December 2021
Mr Bastienne (left) accepts the cheque from Mr He
The embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Seychelles has donated R70,000 towards the ‘Business Incubator’ pilot project which will be launched by the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) in the first quarter of 2022. The donation was handed over by Francis He, chief economic & commercial counsellor of the Seychelles embassy of the Republic of China to the chairman of the SCCI, Oliver Bastienne. Also present at the ceremony was Iouana Pillay, the secretary general of the SCCI.
Handing over the cheque, Mr He stated: “To improve the economic resilience of our families, communities and the need for more job creation brings forth the need to develop sustainable enterprises. This should be done by nurturing current economic resilient enterprises which are under operation and supporting startups to develop new and sustainable employment opportunities in Seychelles. The Honourable Excellency, Mrs Guo Wei, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Seychelles, is passionate about and extremely supports such initiative that builds community, youth and enterprise development, and she is proud to support such project.”
Mr Bastienne on his part said: “As articulated in our response to the budget speech of Minister Hassan, the SCCI is of the view that the national budget has the potential to be transformative in its scope, but transformation of existing businesses and the support of start-ups to meet the new challenges raised by the budget will need new technology and new practices. Therefore, this requires extensive and inclusive thinking, and the SCCI is proposing the set-up of a Business Incubator, which will help facilitate the national transformative agenda laid out in the budget. We have invited the government to collaborate with the SCCI on the formulation of this national project to meet the national strategy of ‘An Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Strategy to Deliver Transformational Change’. Today we want to show everyone that we are ready for this and we will initiate with a pilot project and we are delighted that the People’s Republic of China understands what we are trying to do and the benefit that this will have on our community.”
Ms Pillay on her part said: “We need to show our commitment to what we have stipulated in our response to the budget and in line with our National Business Agenda, one of the pillars was enterprise capabilities to scale up and improve, we have decided to start this project with a pilot project which will be at the SCCI HQ at Providence. It is a start but we need to get moving and we are so delighted and appreciate the support once more from the embassy of the People’s Republic of China. The donation will be used to reorganise the SCCI HQ and procure equipment and furniture for the formulation of the pilot incubator programme. Support from the embassy comes after a request from SCCI, to push for capacity and transformation building of the private sector. We need other support from other stakeholders so if you are interested please do support us.”
To conclude Mr Bastienne further stated: “The donation from the People’s Republic of China displays the continued support towards the Republic of Seychelles’ and our efforts to successfully regain economic strength. More importantly it commemorates the long mutual relationship between the embassy and the SCCI.”
Press release from the SCCI