World media in exciting talks with President Michel about Seychelles’ future

. Plans under way to save some oil wealth

President James Michel last week answered questions from enthusiastic top world media representatives – who were clearly excited about Seychelles’ seemingly prosperous future – during the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia.
 

He also summed up the achievements and way forward, especially for Seychelles and Small Island Developing States (Sids), after the October 28 to 30 CHOGM held in Perth, Australia.

Below are excerpts from the interviews, which were, for example, broadcast through Reuters Television and published across three full pages of the official CHOGM 2011 publication.

The media wanted to know – among other things – how Seychelles will handle the environment when oil exploration begins, and how the country will use money from the exploitation, to which Mr Michel told the media of his plans to ensure some of the wealth will be kept beyond the reach of people’s pockets, for our future generations.

Journalists asked President Michel if we, the population, will not demand to see the income from oil as soon as possible once exploitation begins.

Mr Michel said we the Seychellois are a very understanding nation, and gave the example of how he outlined his plans for the 2008 economic reforms to people at district level and how we criticised but also offered our own ideas.
“What happened subsequently was that within a few months, the people owned the reform, became part of it and they themselves drove it to ensure we were successful,” said Mr Michel.

“We managed to resolve the problems in one year instead of five.
“We are very environmentally conscious and we would like to preserve the pristine environment of our country.
“I have already started discussions with the Norwegians because they have a very good system via their sovereign fund which ensures no one can pocket the oil revenues.

“I have started drafting sovereign oil fund legislation for Seychelles. We will know exactly which money belongs to the people, a certain amount will be allocated to development projects and the bulk of the money will go into the sovereign fund which should be used for future generations and ensure continued sustainability. This is the aim of my presidency and we will succeed in it,” he said.

He said the CHOGM is a very important opportunity “but everything does not depend on the commonwealth”.
“In the commonwealth we get the consensus and support of all member states, then as a family, we can put these views to larger fora such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations where decisions are taken at a global level.

Mr Michel said Seychelles got a lot of pledges from bigger countries and it now remains to see if these will translate into action, noting our sudden rise to a middle income country saw a lot of support abruptly and prematurely cut.

Answering questions on developments in tourism, Mr Michel apprised the media of the steps the country has taken to increase hotel capacity and the number of airlines coming here, through the open sky policy.

He explained how we are already paying the cost for climate change, for example the recent investment in desalination plants.
He told the world about our bold steps to pursue pirates with the country’s limited resources.

Reuters’ chief correspondent for Australia, Michael Perry, asked how Mr Michel saw the meeting, to which he answered:

“The discussions have been very stimulating and covered a wide range of issues. We have discussed extensively the issue of Small Island States (Sids), sustainable development including the problem of piracy, climate change and food security.

“These issues reflect concerns being expressed by most countries, especially Sids and Seychelles, which has always been at the forefront to advocate the specificities and vulnerability of Sids in relation to sustainability and climate change.”
He said as countries graduate to middle income status they fall into what he called “middle income trap” with no access to concessionary financing.

“We then find ourselves cornered in our development and all these issues were raised and the entire commonwealth community present sympathised with the plight of developing countries and Sids in particular, which were represented by 24 island states.

He said the discussions were very productive.

Mr Michel said members of the Commonwealth have to continue pushing for the world to understand we have a planet and humanity to save by reducing emissions and opting more for renewable energy.

He said helping small countries pursue the renewable energy goal would give the world laboratories that other nations can emulate.

Mr Michel noted his argument that piracy is not a regional problem has been accepted, and stressed today we are grappling with the crime, but tomorrow the world could find itself faced by some of the other problems that are arising, like terrorism, which has already shown its face in “countries like Kenya and Uganda, and threatening to spread further”.