SCCI comments on State-of-the-nation address |21 February 2017

The Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has commented on President Danny Faure’s State-of-the-nation address.

While agreeing on certain points raised in the address, the chamber has expressed reservations on others.

We publish the reaction of the SCCI through the following communiqué issued by its chairman, Wilson Nancy.

“There are two sides of a coin. On the one side there is the social aspect and on the other side there is the economic aspect.

“The President focussed mainly on the social aspect right from the onset. When he said ‘To understand the state of our nation, it is important that we understand the state of our families, our communities, our society, and our democracy’.

“He further said that today, the Seychellois families are facing multiple social problems directly linked to housing issues and social ills. This also directly affect productivity. The SCCI has always stressed that the country needs to reverse this negative working trend among Seychellois workers, the few that remains.

“Apart from the family foundation, all educational institutions need to revamp its effort towards instilling the good work ethic within our youth. Students who are low academically need not stay in secondary school wasting taxpayer’s money.The country should have a parallel system whereby they can go to specialist schools and learn a desired trade early on. A similar system exists in Germany successfully, and we feel the government should seriously look into this. This may be through an educational institution overseas, or an internship or placement in a commercial firm – domestic or overseas – where the students can gain exposure and experience which will help them once they join the world of work. We hope this can instil into students the good work ethic that will carry them through to the right career path at an earlier stage.

“The drug issue is also a very serious one for SCCI and the business community. We acknowledge the fact that the President has highlighted a new approach in dealing with same and we hope that this time around it will be successful. SCCI has always advocated against the open sea policy and we feel that one way to control such illicit drug entry is to have dedicated ports of entry into the country, say at each region and that all vessels are registered with SFA, be it pleasure boats or fishing vessels or others would need to use this particular avenue. Their movements in and out of Seychelles’ main islands and ports are registered by competent authority being SFA/Port Authority and serious punishment for non-compliance by anyone should be implemented.

“As for the alcohol problem we feel the present restriction on selling same is not being successful. We need a better approach and policing on how best to deal with this problem, mainly the local brew whereby regulations are not being implemented. Stricter control on quality and content should also be enforced.

“The re-organisation of SBFA (Small Business Financing Agency)

 is a welcome move since we have received a lot of complaints from our SME with regard to same. The bureaucratic red tapes should be avoided at all cost and also we hope that with our mentorship programme and televised start-up programme, this can complement such work by SBFA.

“SCCI also welcomes the move by government to propose a new, comprehensive law which will allow a working environment which is in the interests of both the employee and the employer. We hope that SCCI will be consulted in this venture so that we can play a much bigger role than in the past where we were more of a reactive voice than a consultative one. The move also to remove the red-tape for workers reaching retirement age whereby they would not be required to undergo medical test is welcomed and may we push that someone should be free to work as long as he/she feels physically able to, even past the retirement age.

“SCCI also stresses that we reduce the total acceptable sick leave from any worker from the present number to 15 days in a year in order to cut on the abuse that exists presently.

“SCCI welcomes the move for a National Development Plan and we hope to play a pivotal role in same and the key private sector representation. We also accept the delay in implementing the progressive income tax since the country was not ready for it. We had several discussions on same along with the Association of Auditors and Accountants and together we have found that the tax reform needs to be comprehensive and going about it piecemeal will create more confusion among the businesses. The bottom line is that we need to simplify the tax regime across the board. This will automatically generate more compliance from the business sector.

“On the monetary side, we feel that the last date for collecting the old notes should be brought forward to at least March 1 instead of June 30, 2017. The reason being that all bonafide businesses will be able to push through the banking system their legit cash earning that will eliminate the chances that presently exist whereby illegal cash earnings are pushed through the banking system in small trunches in compliance with the present banking regulation.

“Right from day one when I took the chairmanship, I stressed on the fact that government needs to improve on the infrastructure if we are to increase the productive sector. We are glad to see that certain major projects have been earmarked for implementation in the coming years. The port expansion, reclamation project are welcomed. SCCI feels that better roads especially at the industrial zones should also take priority as capital projects. The tunnel project is a rather far-fetched one but should the feasibility study proves affordable and complementing the present limitations in quarry materials, why not. As long as it brings all the productive sectors closer to market and port, we would welcome such move.

“On the other hand we feel presently a second cable is not the immediate solution. The telephone operators who are the present owners of the cable project, should open up more capacity bandwidth of the present one and let it work to its full capacity since we are told that the present situation is working at under-capacity. Now in the case of an accident, we can seek alternative cable route which not necessarily that it has to be from the same route as this first one, which might cost less thus bringing down the cost for same to customers.

“SCCI welcomes the move to extend the moratorium on construction of big hotels until 2020. The local business in the hospitality field should therefore take advantage of such to boost their capacity in the interim. The classification system for hotels is long overdue and SCCI is glad that it will be implemented from January 2018.

“SCCI needs clarification on the issue of access to the beach under the law. There are several beaches although not declared as private have permanent structures such as wall, picket fences, etc.. and non permanent ones such as dogs, no-trespassing signs, etc.. How is the Seychellois public meant to interpret such hindrance to access to the beach? At other places there are beaches right on the door steps of private houses, do we allow picnickers to access such beach with loud music and other noisy devices to the point that we invade others’ privacy? These are things we need to discuss further and we hope that by now until June 2017, SCCI will have the chance to participate in such discussion with the law makers and come to an agreeable solution which is fair for all.”

Wilson Nancy

SCCI chairman