President Danny Faure’s State visit to Mauritius - SCCI meets Mauritian counterpart |30 October 2017
The Seychelles Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) through its chairman Oliver Bastienne paid a courtesy visit to their Mauritian counterpart, the Mauritius Chambers of Commerce & Industry (MCCI).
The visit was part of an arrangement programme as part of the State visit of President Danny Faure to Mauritius.
Mr Bastienne was hosted by the Vice-President of MCCI, Marday Venkatasamy, and the secretary general, Raju Jaddoo, at the headquarters of MCCI in Port-Louis.
The meeting has been described by Mr Bastienne as historic as the reformed chamber re-ignites its relationship with MCCI, forging a much more proactive and intense collaboration as both countries cement their partnership as announced in the joint press conference by both leaders of Mauritius and Seychelles at the Prime Minister’s office.
As part of the visit both chambers agreed to initiate the future relationship by signing an agreement of cooperation that focuses on 3 key components:
- Realising the need to foster a spirit of better cooperation and coordination between the business community of both countries to identify key areas for enhancement of trade and economic development;
- The setting up the Seychelles-Mauritius Joint Business Council in order to provide a platform which will be used as a forum for the promotion of business exchanges mainly related to trade in goods, in services between the two countries. It was agreed that the first meeting of the Joint Business Council will be held in Seychelles before the year end.
- In view of the reform of SCCI, a platform for enhanced understanding and capacity development with MCCI where current operation structures, innovative ideas and arrangements are discussed with eventual synergies being discussed and implemented.
“Firstly I am completely impressed with the set up here and the manner of operations by MCCI. We can learn a lot and I am committed to strengthening the foundation laid out by previous visiting chairpersons of SCCI. However we need to move away from just signing agreements but implementing them and this is why both chambers felt the need to adopt a resolution to get things moving,”said Mr Bastienne.
In terms of the value of this collaboration, Mr Bastienne explained that “President Faure has highlighted on numerous occasions that the chamber is meant to represent the private sector on a national platform and we are honoured to be part of his delegation as current discussion with our counterpart MCCI depicts areas of collaboration through a dynamic and tangible relationship for the benefit of the country as a whole”.
The first action of this partnership will be the joint business council which SCCI will host before the year ends. Mauritian businesses will be invited to Seychelles to discuss B2B agreements that will enhance trade, reduce the cost of living while also discussing potential areas of partnership through the African Strategy adopted by Mauritius.
Exchange of ideas and practices with regard to the ease of doing business will also be an important component of this collaboration.
“This to me is critical as 80% of our business in Seychelles are Micro, Small & Medium. We need to explore opportunities for all but must assist the 80% to seize on opportunities and to make the business environment back home more thriving,” emphasised Mr Bastienne.