EU ready to support with investment and experience |07 September 2022

Mrs Vitcheva in talks with President Ramkalawan yesterday at State House (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

• Productive talks ahead of Blue Invest Africa forum

By Patsy Canaya

Seychelles and the European Union have held talks ahead of the first-ever Blue Invest Africa forum, where they highlighted their strategic partnership and various achievements in the blue economy sector.

The European Commission director general for Maritime Resources and Fisheries, Charlina Vitcheva, paid a courtesy call on Seychelles President, Wavel Ramkalawan, yesterday at State House where they discussed the various areas of cooperation and how to further enhance the partnership between Seychelles and the EU.

Speaking to the local press after the meeting, Mrs Vitcheva described it as “very productive and friendly” and an “extremely nice occasion to exchange the strategic partnership that we have between the Seychelles and the European Union”.

Among the points raised was today’s auspicious event, ‘BlueInvest Africa’ forum that will be launched at the Eden Bleu Hotel by President Ramkalawan.

The forum will address investment opportunities in the blue economy sector for coastal maritime African countries and Indian Ocean island nations and will be an exchange point for businesses from Europe and Africa, interested to develop sustainable products and services in the blue economy and related sectors.

Mrs Vitcheva said this was a huge potential for Seychelles as it is surrounded by the ocean and it was in a better position to see the challenges and the potential of the ocean.

“The blue economy is the source of wellbeing, business opportunities and sustainability and we have to make it together, Europe and Africa, a sustainable good partnership on blue economy,” said Mrs Vitcheva.

She added that hosting the event with Seychelles was an important one, the first of a kind, and the EU does not want it to be a one-off event.

“We want to build a process and it is a process that starts in the Seychelles.”

President Ramkalawan and Mrs Vitcheva also addressed the issue of maritime security seeing that Seychelles has a strategic position in the region.

“We are also supporting everything that goes against the illegal unreported and unregulated fisheries and we are working shoulder to shoulder to ensure that in the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission we have good decisions and they are followed for sustainable fisheries, for restocking where restocking is needed of various species of tuna.”

It should be noted that Seychelles and the EU have a Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement, worth €60 million, which the director general for Maritime Resources and Fisheries, described as “the most important tuna fisheries agreement for the European Union”.

She said yesterday’s talks also highlighted the various achievements between the two parties including financial support for capacity-building and technical assistance in Seychelles’ blue economy sector, which is very important as the country is stretched for human resources.

She further added that EU stands ready to support with investment and experience and invited Seychelles to make use of EU’s satellite system of Copernicus, which is readily accessible to the island nation.

Other than the BLueInvest Africa forum, during her stay in the country, Mrs Vitcheva will also be visiting some projects supported under EU funding.

During yesterday’s courtesy call, the director general for Maritime Resources and Fisheries also took the opportunity to congratulate Seychelles for its upgrading in the International Monetary Fund listing, which she said was a huge achievement.

She also praised the country for being one of most serious towards the Paris agreement and for honouring its contribution towards it.

“This is a complete deliverable and complete commitment from the very top political level,” said Mrs Vitcheva.

During yesterday’s courtesy call at State House, Mrs Vitcheva was accompanied by Designated Minister and Minister for Fisheries & the Blue Economy, Jean-François Ferrari; the EU ambassador to Seychelles, Vincent Degert; and other government representatives from the Seychelles Blue Economy and Foreign Affairs departments.