Business sector gets big boost to diversify |30 December 2022
Investors in aquaculture receive their licences
With Seychelles looking to diversify its economy and to bring it closer to reducing importation of certain products while allowing for more exports, six investors whose applications were successful for them to venture into the seafood business with the possibility to export certain marine species, were on December 14, presented with their aquaculture business licences.
This is considered as another important chapter in the development of the sector domestically and a big boost to diversify the business sector.
The three types of licences issued will allow the investors to engage in research and development, production, and hatchery or nursery of approved species.
Under the issued licenses which have a grace period of three years, four of the investors will carry out research, trials and pilot production of sea cucumber, spanner crab, mud crab, and rock oyster while others will cover the production of prawns and sea cucumbers. One investor will in addition to its production licence, engage in the hatchery and nursery of marine species such as sea cucumbers which is in high demand, especially in Asian countries.
The Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) has over recent years invested heavily in research and putting in place the right legal framework for the sector to kick start.
Foreign visitors continue to increase
Meanwhile with tourism being the main pillar of the economy, it is predicted that our tourism industry will recover by 90% at the end of 2022 since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics as of December 11, 2022, show that a total of 311,108 visitors disembarked in the country this year, figures slightly lower than those of the same period in 2019, prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which stood at 353,215 visitors.
Amid the world crisis, the tourism department is set to end the year with an estimated 330,000 visitors, a figure which could have been higher had the global situation been more favourable.
With regard to our country’s relation with and commitment to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Seychelles has been praised by the organisation and other member States for having made steady progress in implementing its WTO accession commitments and playing an active and constructive role in the multilateral trading system, since becoming the 161st WTO member in April 2015. The progress made was recognised at the first Trade and Policy Review (TPR) of the island-nation’s policies and practices on December 5 and 7, in Geneva.
It was the principal secretary for Trade, Francis Lebon, who made the announcement on December 14, 2022 in which he also noted that Seychelles has received offers from the WTO member states of support and technical assistance to build local capacity to fill the gaps which currently exist and to develop the digitisation and e-commerce systems, while others have proposed to increase trade.
The Trade Policy Reviews is an exercise to which all WTO member states are subjected, whereby trade and related policies are examined and evaluated. This is done regularly, and in Seychelles’ case, every seven years.
Air Seychelles restructured
With regard to Air Seychelles, it was officially removed from administration after 13 months and it is now under the responsibility of the company's board of directors. The airline went into administration in October 2021 after it faced financial difficulties, mainly due to significant debt that was incurred during the stewardship of the airline by Etihad Airways, which previously owned a 40% share in the company.
Suketu Patel and Bernard Pool were the two administrators appointed to consider the optimum ways of restructuring the company and settling its debts after which the airline was able to provide the settlement funds of approximately US $28 million out of the US $76 million initial debt owed to bondholders as part of the airline's rescue plan made between the airline's administrators and its creditors. The US $28.3 million paid came partly from the company's own coffers while the Seychelles government lent Air Seychelles a further US $13 million to cover the whole cost.
As part of the rescue plan, it has been agreed that the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) will create a new company that will own all the ground handling operations assets, which will see Air Seychelles given a management contract for ground handling operations.
ESA boosts capacity of local businesses, organises first Black Friday Sales
In 2022, the Enterprise Seychelles Agency (ESA), within the Ministry for Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry (MIEI), organised a total of 10 fairs and networking events for local businesses, whereby an average of more than 100 participants were in attendance. ESA also conducted a total of 19 capacity building support trainings/workshops for businesses, compared to only 11 trainings/workshops, in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The main types of support provided this year focused mainly on empowerment, capacity building programmes in the form of training and workshops, academic sessions, exposure to international training opportunities, business counselling and assistance through grants. These support reached a number of 8052 businesses and individuals -- 2076 walk-ins and 5976 through telephone calls.
For the first time in Seychelles, this year, ESA organised a Black Friday Sales that kicked off at the Camion Hall grounds and attracted a large number of visitors and shoppers. Businesses ‒ micro, small, medium and large ‒ from various sectors participated in the Black Friday Sales initiative with the aim to boost sales and create the busiest shopping period of the year which has the potential to be of great advantages to merchants, retailers, business owners and customers.
SIB assists 96 potential investors
The Seychelles Investment Bureau (SIB) on its part assisted a total number of 96 investors as at mid-December 2022, compared to 2020 and 2021 where the total number of investors assisted was 57 and 77 respectively which showed an upward trend and that interest to invest in Seychelles is slightly picking up after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Additionally, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for Q3 of 2022 stood at USD 146.0 million (an increase of 18%) compared to USD 123.7 million for Q3 of 2021.
In July 2022, the Seychelles Licensing Authority (SLA) successfully launched its online services for business and traffic related licences to which a total number of 38 online transactions have been recorded since an equivalent to R100,198.00, with the majority of transactions being in October and beginning of December 2022.
Demand for industrial land increases
The demand for industrial land from the Industrial Estates Authority (IEA) in 2022, increased to 1146 applications compared to 1100 applications in 2021. This shows that the demand for land for industrial related business activities keeps increasing.
Last year the total number of requests for different tests recorded by the Seychelles Bureau of Standards (SBS) amounted to 5,434 tests and for the year 2022 there has been an increase of 7% in the number of tests requested and this amounts to 5818.
Remarkably, the largest increase was in the food chemical testing (42% increase) but construction material remained the most tested with 2,623 tests compared to 2,314 in 2021.
More than 50 businesses have shown interest in the business incubator programme with the Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation (DSTI). The majority of the businesses are in the pre-seed or early stage of development.
Compiled by Patrick Joubert/Contribution from the Ministry of Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry
