World Bank Group delegation received at State House |21 June 2018

Andrew Ndaamunhu Bvumbe, the executive director of the World Bank (WB) Group who represents Seychelles at the financial institution’s board, called on President Danny Faure at State House yesterday afternoon.

Mr Bvumbe is leading a three-member delegation on the visit which will include several meetings with key officials in trade and finance aimed at strengthening and reinforcing collaboration between Seychelles and the WB.

The WB delegation was accompanied at State House by the secretary of state in the Ministry of Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning, Patrick Payet, and the principal secretary in the economic planning department in the same ministry, Elizabeth Charles.

“We have just finished the country partnership framework for Seychelles which is going to the WB board next month and we wanted to share with the president details of the framework, our position on the different priorities of government  as we represent Seychelles on the board,” Mr Bvumbe told the press after the meeting.

Among the priorities, focus of discussion was on infrastructure related to energy, port development, the tunnel project and connectivity -- in fact the whole framework of infrastructure development in the country.

“We were delighted that the government is focusing on the private sector-led growth going forward limiting the public sector in terms of financing infrastructure. We also discussed innovative ways of financing this huge infrastructure gap and programme,” Mr Bvumbe pointed out.

He said the WB is looking forward to working with the government in the process. 

He appreciated the fact that the government has put together the Public Private Partnership Bill and has urged that now things move quickly to create the right environment for private sector financing.

During its visit the delegation will hold several meetings with officials in finance and trade aimed at strengthening collaboration between Seychelles and the WB.

For his part Mr Payet confirmed that the talks focused on key issues related to infrastructure development as President Faure highlighted in his state-of-the- nation address, ways to attract financing from the private sector, how to engage the WB in the national development strategy among other related matters.