Enterprise to get boost from new economic plan
21.05.2009
The government is getting ready to unveil a new economic plan, Finance Minister Danny Faure has announced.
The government is getting ready to unveil a new economic plan, Finance Minister Danny Faure has announced.
He said this will be done with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the government will be working closely with the private sector and civil society.
“There will be a macro framework establishing new parameters as we prepare this new medium-term economic plan,” he said at the Seychelles Forum on Monday.
“There will be an overhaul of the present tax system as we strengthen the public enterprise that we have. And if today we have problems with the cost of doing business, we need to tackle these issues head-on – we need to create and we need to improve the investment climate for business to prosper so the private sector can play its rightful role as the engine of economic growth.”
Mr Faure said there will be reforms in public finance management and a review of the medium-term economic plan when the budget is presented later this year.
“In the coming two weeks with the help of the IMF, AfDB and the World Bank we will be working closely with the private sector and civil society to prepare a macro-economic framework,” he said.
He said President James Michel has already indicated to the IMF that in November Seychelles will seek to replace the two-year Stand-By Arrangement with an extended fund facility, which is a three-year programme. This takes into consideration the structural nature of the second generation of reforms we need to carry out, which means we need a different fund facility.
He said while the reforms are going ahead, the social sector will not be neglected and there will be further development of the health and education sectors while at the same time boosting their efficiency.