Seychellois alumni join in 52nd ITEC commemoration |19 September 2016
Seychellois alumni from various fields, beneficiaries of training under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme as well as high government and military officials among other guests, on Thursday evening joined the Indian high commissioner Sanjay Panda to commemorate the 52nd year of the programme.
The ceremony took place at India House, Turtle Bay.
The ITEC Programme, launched on September 15, 1964 initially as a bilateral programme of assistance of the Indian government as part of its effort to contribute towards south-south capacity-building cooperation, has expanded over the years and today 161 countries are partners with India on what has been described as a unique journey.
“Training thousands of foreign officials in India every year, the ITEC programme is the most important vehicle for sharing our knowledge, skills and expertise with the rest of the world,” HC Panda said.
He added that every year over 10,000 scholarships are offered to 161 partner countries including Seychelles.
“Today ITEC is synonymous with cooperation and partnership. It addresses the needs of developing countries and is a prime example of south-south cooperation he stressed.
Mr Panda noted that in Seychelles the tele-medicine and tele-education facilities set up under the Pan-African Satellite Project as well as an IT Centre of Excellence at a cost of some US $1 million with Indian support are recent examples of such cooperation projects.
He went on to state that to date some 1,000 Seychellois professionals have benefitted from the ITEC training programme and they form part of the valuable human resources of Seychelles engaged in providing invaluable services to the nation.
They have benefitted from training which have covered diverse areas such as information and communications technology, a wide range of different tactical and technical courses for the military and defence forces, computer hardware and networking, entrepreneurship and skills development, audit and accounting, management of public expenditure, sustainable development, environment and climate change, forensic science, women empowerment through vocational and technical education, among others.
Nissa Payet, who studied IT at an institute in New Delhi from June to August this year, described the experience as “wonderful and memorable”.
“Other than the training part, the other most interesting aspect of the programme is the opportunity you get to learn the culture, traditions and way of life of not only Indians but of different other countries whose students take part in the programme. It was really great and I had a wonderful time,” Nissa said.
For Daniel Rosine, a training officer at the Seychelles Defence Academy (SDA) who studied at a military institution in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, the experience will always be a memorable one.
“It is an opportunity where you also learn to appreciate different cultures, share and exchange experience with colleagues from different countries,” Daniel said.
His training was from December 2015 to March 2016.
When he addressed everyone present, Foreign Affairs and Transport Minister Joel Morgan said with the knowledge and skills that our people have acquired from various fields in different centres of excellence in India, they have been empowered with more than just professional skills and prepared to work in an increasingly challenging globalised world.
“With the increasing interest from our people to benefit from the ITEC programme, we sincerely hope India will continue to allocate the same number of slots to Seychellois citizens,” Minister Morgan said.
He expressed Seychelles’ pride at being part of a worldwide community benefitting from the ITEC programme because “our people is not only exposed to the Indian way of life but to the rich diversity of the Indian culture which for us is of great importance as we believe it is through people to people exchanges that we can uncover new avenues for future collaborations”.