Seychelles to host regional business forum |13 October 2009

A local delegation to the 5th Forum Economique des Iles de L’Océan Indien in Mayotte returned here over the weekend with this news and said it was satisfied with the results achieved on such topics as fishing, tourism and air access.

The three-day forum was organised by the Union des Chambres de Commerce et d’Industrie de l’Océan Indien (UCCIOI) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC). It brought together over 300 delegates from Reunion, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles and Mayotte to discuss inter-island cooperation.

The Seychellois delegation was headed by Dolor Ernesta, vice-chairman of the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and included the chamber’s secretary-general Nicole Tirant-Gherardi, councillor Joe Chung-Faye and SCCI member Jeanine Chung-Faye.

Also present were Air Seychelles’ executive chairman Captain David Savy and Seychelles’ director of tourism marketing Alain St Ange, both of whom had been invited to address the forum.

Mr Ernesta, who co-chaired the workshop on the hotly debated topic of fishing, said on his return he was satisfied with the delegation’s involvement at the forum, which was chaired by Marday Venkatasamy – current president of the UCCIOI – and attended by French Secretary of State for Transport Dominique Bussereau and Philippe Leysenne, the French ambassador for regional cooperation in the Indian Ocean.

Mrs Tirant-Gherardi used the workshop on air access to table a resolution calling on IOC member states to establish free movement of national airlines within the region.

Her resolution was approved by the UCCIOI at its annual general meeting held later in the forum and will now be taken to the IOC with a view to influencing the political will to open up the region’s airspace.

Captain Savy, in his presentation at the same workshop, repeated the position of Air Seychelles and its plans to connect the islands of the Indian Ocean in an effective way.

And Mr St Ange, who gave one of the main presentations during the workshop on tourism – A regional dimension on the tourism industry – praised the new public-private partnership between the government and tourism operators, a move that has played a major role in relaunching Seychelles’ tourism industry.

Mr St Ange also looked at possibilities for the islands of the IOC to work together in better promoting the Indian Ocean as a region and developing a sustainable tourism industry.
 
The forum ended with Serge Castel, president of the Mayotte Chamber of Commerce and Industry, handing over the UCCIOI flag to Mr Ernesta as the Seychelles chamber will organise the gathering in 2010.