President Danny Faure’s State-of-the-Nation Address 2018 |07 March 2018
New measures to boost economic development
President Danny Faure has announced numerous measures aimed at encouraging more economic development and growth as well as bringing more prosperity to our people and reducing poverty.
This was during his 2nd State-of-the-nation Address delivered in the National Assembly late yesterday afternoon.
Among the different announcements are additional facilities and services for the elderly.
These will include a ‘Day Centre’ -- a place to occupy our elderly during the day, the construction of more ‘Homes for the Elderly’, where able-bodied elderly can live together, more ‘Nursing Homes’ where those elderly citizens who require specialised care can stay together and professionaling the carer system to ensure that our elderly citizens are looked after well, and that carers can look after more than one person at a time.
President Faure added that the government has already begun enhancing the carer system by offering professional training.
“The government is making land available to the private sector to build and manage such establishments,” President Faure
stated.
He also explained that those private businesses that put up the facilities outlined for our elderly citizens before 2021, will be exempted from Business Tax for the first 10 years of their operation.
Meanwhile President Faure has also announced an increase in social security benefit for our elderly citizens, from R5050 to R5250 a month from January 2019. To benefit citizens with lower salaries who are also affected by the rising cost of living, the government will also increase the minimum wage to R5250 per month.
Based on the revenue performance of the first two months of this year, and the accelerated preparation done by the Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC), President Faure announced that the government has decided that the last phase of the Progressive Income Tax will now be implemented one month earlier -- from June 1 this year instead of July.
He has called on all employees and employers to make sure that they contribute toward their pensions.
“Even if it is not much, contribute regularly,” he said.
Now that the tanker business is doing well and Seypec has repaid all it loans, President Faure announced that the time has come for Seychellois to share in the success of this company.
“From November this year, 20% of Seypec will be privatised. This investment will be available exclusively to Seychellois,” President Faure stated.
With regard to employment, President Faure pointed out that the level of our development and the size of our economy means that there are more jobs than Seychellois looking for jobs. It is for this reason that the country needs foreign workers.
“What is important is that we continue to create a favourable environment for our Seychellois workforce to continue progressing in their place of work. This depends heavily on training, commitment, and a strong human resources department at the workplace,” he stressed.
For people who are already in employment, it is an opportune moment to launch the country on a continual training programme where the private sector has a vital role to play.
“We have decided to amend the ‘Business Tax’ law to give benefits to companies that implement training programmes for their workers. Today, only tourism, fishing, and agriculture sectors get fiscal advantages in ‘Business Tax’ when they finance training for their workers. The government has decided to give this benefit to all businesses in all sectors – all businesses will be allowed 150% deduction of the cost of training for their staff. This measure will take effect from April 1 this year.
“We will also amend the ‘Income and Non Monetary Benefits Tax’ to remove tax that is applied on the benefits that employers give employees for training. This will also take effect from April 1 this year,” President Faure explained.
Meanwhile President Faure has announced that as from May 1 this year a new regulation that gives protection to our stevedores and the important work they do for our economy will come into force. This comes after a lot of debate and discussion on the stevedoring profession. Additionally a new regulation which will protect domestic workers will also come into force as from May 1.
In the education sector, President Faure announced that from this year ‘automatic promotion’ will no longer apply. “It is important that children learn, learn, and learn, to attain their set targets before progressing to the next level,” he stressed.
“Another decision involves the creation of a Technical and Vocational School on Ile Soleil, that will take children from S3. There is a necessity to better prepare our youth from a young age for them to gain the knowledge and competence to better integrate into the economic sector,” he said.
Again he has invited the private sector to collaborate in the construction and management of this school, noting that the government will pay for the education of all children who go to this school which he hopes to see open in January 2020.
