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Archive -Seychelles

Six Seychellois accepted on prestigious Australia Awards programme |11 August 2017

 HC Dee introducing Roy Govinden and Julianna Blackmore, both of whom will  be undertaking the Masters Awardees in Australia

Uvika Bristol, Irene Croise, Errol Renaud, Julianna Blackmore, Lucille Brutus and Roy Govinden are the six successful Seychellois candidates for the 2017 Australia Awards.

This was announced by Australia’s newly appointed high commissioner to Seychelles, Jenny Dee, during a reception at RockPool restaurant, Glacis on Wednesday evening to celebrate the strong people-to-people links between both countries with guests including Australian alumni and the local business community.

During the ceremony Ms Dee announced the re-establishment of a small number of Masters Scholarships under the Australia Awards programme. The Australia Awards -- the Australian government’s flagship scholarship programme -- is highly competitive and the high quality of Seychellois applicants, who were competing among candidates from across Africa, did not go unnoticed this year.

The announcement coincided with the high commissioner’s first visit to Seychelles to present her credentials to the President and meet other key government figures to reaffirm the strength of relations between the two countries and discuss new areas of cooperation.

The high commissioner stated that Seychelles and Australia have got a very powerful relationship.

“I am delighted that during my first visit to the Seychelles, I am able to announce the 2017 awardees of our Australia Awards programme. Australia is committed to continuing to support Seychelles in building capacity in priority areas and supporting reforms within its institutions. Through the Australia Awards programme, Australian expertise is shared with awardees, equipping them with new skills so they can contribute to the development of their countries in return,” she said.

Roy Govinden from the Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) and Julianna Blackmore from the Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) are undertaking the Masters Awardees in Australia.

Mr Govinden will be following his courses in Master Agricultural Science specialising in Agronomy.  “Currently I am working as a research officer with the SAA, for the past nine years. I chose Australia because I did my BSc in that same country. I am familiar with their culture. Since I started working for SAA I managed to gather a lot of knowledge which will guide me during my studies,” he said.

Ms Blackmore will follow a Master in Customs Administration.

“Currently I am working as a director of compliance at support at SRC since 1999. I have chosen Australia because in Seychelles, we follow a lot of laws that Australia has implemented, so it is therefore fitting for me to learn more about such laws. At Customs we have a lot of Australians who come as technical advisors to work with us. I want to have the same knowledge and bring Seychelles forward,” she said.

The other four Seychellois will be undertaking short courses such as Uvika Bristol in ocean governance and sustainable fisheries, Irene Croise in public private infrastructure partnership, Lucille Brutus in trade policy and negotiations and Errol Renaud in mineral and energy economics.

The next application round for the Australian Awards will open in September 2017. Information on the Australia Awards is available through the Local Coordinating Authority of the Australia Awards in the Seychelles, the Agency for National Human Resource Development (http://www/anhrd.gov.sc/ ) and the Australia Awards website http://www.australiaawardsafrica.org.african-countries/seychelles/.

 

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