Joining global society with our modern economy |17 June 2009

We have aligned ourselves to integrate properly into global society with an economy that fully matches modern times.

The reforms to launch us in that direction may not have been easy, but their welcome results are already here – much to the surprise of many.

Thanks to the policies of President James Michel’s government, the impact of the reforms has been toned down despite the world economic crisis.

Many of our partners have noted and praised this special effort to cushion us.
Yesterday evening, for example, Chinese Ambassador Wang Weiguo referred to the safety net provided by our government, saying it is trying hard to shield us from feeling the full impact of the global economic difficulties.

Other countries have said the same thing while commending us for the reforms’ budding success.
The biggest hurdle of foreign exchange shortage – which seemed like an unsolvable problem that impeded foreign investment – is already gone and we now have an evolving, dynamic society with suitable laws protecting business interests and rights, as well as those of consumers.

These have made Seychelles the investment destination for many large organisations.
Only months ago our coffers were nearly empty, with little in foreign exchange reserves for imports, but that too has now changed.

Shop shelves were nearly empty as merchants waited on long lists to get foreign exchange to bring in their wares, but they are now full.

Items that were scarce are now plentiful with a wide variety that Seychelles has never known.
Obviously not everything is a bed of roses and some more sacrifices will still need to be made at personal, government and corporate levels, but we now have the means to keep up with modern trends as we prepare to work more closely with other countries for an even brighter future.

All our partners have said they are willing to lend us a helping hand, adding that they have seen our determination and the positive results of the initiatives our government has launched.

All we need to achieve our goals is unity under our banner Come Together Seychellois.
Larger countries have called on their people and on their private, public, social and political organisations to join hands with their governments to tide them over the global difficulties.

Given our size and the disadvantages we face as a small island developing nation, we have even greater reason to come together and face our challenges in unity as our President has, time and again, told us.

On June 18, 1993 our leaders gave us a great example of unity, which we should follow, when they adopted the Constitution of the Third Republic.

The rewards of the changes are certain and have already started showing themselves, and as President Michel has told us, we will go down in history as the generation that turned things around, pulling our dear country back from a steep precipice towards the prosperity we are guaranteed to see if we stick together.