En Moman Avek Prezidan - About US $289 million of foreign direct investment has come into Seychelles this year – a substantial amount at a time when the world is still in a financial crisis, President James Michel has said.

He was speaking about the benefits of investment during the last En Moman Avek Prezidan programme for the year, which was broadcast on SBC TV on Sunday evening.

Mr Michel said the fact that Seychelles has managed to attract this much foreign investment shows the confidence investors have in our small country.

Most people understand the importance of such investment for our country, and it is sad to see that a minority are spending their time spreading propaganda and fear in our people because they do not want us to create more wealth, he added.

The President explained that when a country does not have resources or capacity and wants to create wealth for its people, it has to bring in investment.

“This will create infrastructure such as at the airport, port and other places to allow them to increase economic activity,” he said.

Then we have social infrastructure; investment in the population is also important, and here we need to build more schools and hospitals, he said.

In most countries this basic infrastructure is built by the government, but when a country is poor and does not have substantial resources, it has to look for grants and loans.

Seychelles had to take out loans, and today we have debts because we had to improve our infrastructure to create the economic space to let our country develop, Mr Michel said.

Sometimes the government has been criticised for taking loans, but these loans have gone into economic and social development.

All countries need investment, even the developed ones such as the United Kingdom, France and Asian nations – even though they have resources, he added. They need foreign investment to develop their private sector, so why must Seychelles be an exception?

There was a time when small island states were competing with each other to attract investment, and during that time we had to give concessions to encourage investors. Now we can remove these concessions and level the platform to encourage all to invest.

The President said investment that involves partnerships between local people and foreigners is going well. An example is the Constance Lemuria Resort on Praslin, where a group of Seychellois decided to invest in the project along with a company from Mauritius.

“The Constance Ephelia Resort is another tourism establishment where we see such excellent partnership,” he added.

Mr Michel said the amount of capital is less with local investment, but still we have many small businesses and our people are taking loans from banks to develop their projects.

This is good, he said, as it empowers Seychellois. His wish is for them to keep up their good work and, hopefully, one day they will be able to venture into bigger investment.

He stressed that foreign investment brings wealth, gives employment to our people and creates downstream economic activity.

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