President Faure meets new SCCI chairman |06 April 2018

President Danny Faure has congratulated Oliver Bastienne on his election as the new chairman of the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI).

President Faure received Mr Bastienne at State House yesterday morning where they talked about the successes and challenges of SCCI.

Also present at the meeting were the new secretary general of SCCI, Iouana Pillay, and the economic advisor, Bertrand Belle and the director general, Ginny Elizabeth, both from the Office of the President.

The discussions focused on SCCI’s new working strategy based on good governance, transparency, collaboration and unity, in the hope of getting more businesses to join the chamber.

They also discussed SCCI’s recent AGM, on its constitution which urgently needs to be relooked at and revised.

A memorandum of understanding to be signed with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation and on the positive and negative responses from the business community were also issues discussed.

Mr Bastienne thanked President Faure for the courteous invitation which he said was fundamentally important to building a solid working relationship between SCCI and government.

“The discussions were very serious and positive where we discussed facts on how the chamber is struggling to keep pace with the needs of the business community. But going forward we have formulated a strategy that we believe will really kind of infuse in terms of a solid chamber and to work in partnership with all the enterprises within the jurisdiction,” he said. 

Mr Bastienne, who has been acting chairman of SCCI for the last six months since the resignation of former chairman Wilson Nancy, was elected as the new chairman during the chamber’s AGM on March 28.

With 491 registered active members of small, medium and large businesses, discussions with President Faure also focused on the importance of empowering the business community to being more aware of risk factors that exist in any business prior to venture in.  

Mr Bastienne said that with the new secretariat, SCCI will be very proactive and honest.