Two years of President Michel's presidency-Surely and not even slowly, Michel has delivered |22 April 2006

Like any good manager, he conferred with people from every sector who have the ability to influence change, to see what should be delivered and how.

“Dialogue and consultations are an integral part of the process of collective work and responsibility that I laid emphasis on in my inauguration speech, and I have already started meeting the major stakeholders of our country.

“This will help me – help us, as a team – to chart the way forward,” President Michel told the first Cabinet meeting he chaired as Head of State on April 21, 2004.

Like any wise community leader, he consulted with Seychellois from every walk of life to confirm that what was being proposed was exactly what they wanted.

Little as people may have realised, this precaution also served as a safeguard against going to great lengths, only to supply what would turn out to be white elephants of little interest or use to the people.

At the meetings President Michel accompanied by his Vice-President, Joseph Belmont remained calm and accepted both the constructive and negative criticisms.

The two leaders pledged action which followed soon after wherever it was immediately possible, or started the necessary processes for desired outcome.

Instant results were easy to see at district level, but knowing what a hefty task it was to move things around at the national front, particularly where the economy was concerned, some opponents started hitting at the vital consultations, calling them a waste of time.

The President said he was laying a foundation, and sooner than many expected, the country started to reap many of the expected benefits.

Literally, nobody's worthy points were ignored, which means, President Michel started to deliver what most of the population was expecting.

Ironically, some people seemed to have misgivings that what they had desired and asked for was coming to fruition.

"Maybe they wanted to be the ones to implement certain things, but what if it takes them ages or forever to be in a position to act, would the population have to wait for years and years, possibly decades? The government had to act on what the people need. This is one country, after all," a new home owner who admitted not supporting President Michel or the government before said.

Radical changes

Radical changes have come in all sectors, and not "slowly but surely," but quite fast, or to be specific, within the two short years President Michel has been in power.

Given numerous contingencies that almost always arise, rarely would one expect to look at an original plan and compare it with results expecting to find implementation matching the plans to the word anywhere in the world.

Still President Michel seems to have done exactly that.
The amazing comparison of the following verbatim statements he made in Budget 2005 and subsequently in Budget 2006 bears this out.

“The 2005 Budget reflects my determination to take Seychelles and the Seychellois people one more step further towards a better life and create a more prosperous and dynamic economy,” he said in 2004.

Now look at what he rightly said the following year:
“On this day last year I presented to you the 2005 Budget which reflected my determination to take Seychelles and the Seychellois people further on the road of progress and prosperity.
 
“The 2005 Budget was part of the new platform for our medium to long-term development. 

It introduced further measures to modernise our economy, accelerate its growth, inspire more confidence in both local and foreign investors and as a result create more wealth and employment.

“Throughout 2005, we strove to achieve these objectives and we have delivered,” he said, and then listed the many things that the government had promised and had now delivered, which were to do with improving efficiency and service delivery, creation of new bodies outside ministries such as the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority, the Seychelles Tourism Board, the National Statistics Bureau, provision of further incentives to the tourism industry and new ones for the agricultural and fisheries sectors and measures to assist musicians and to promote cottage industries while increasing support to small businesses as the programme of trades tax reduction continued.

“The government has removed the requirement for import permits for most goods, adopted provisions for the declaration of assets by public servants, reduced the stock of domestic debt and established the Esmeralda Bond to encourage a culture of personal savings and also reduced and in certain cases restructured external debts,” he said.

President Michel noted that the Investment Code had been finalised, and as publicised recently, last year the number of investors shot to 215.

The tourism industry has, for example, seen the emergence of 11 new hotels during the period under review and quite a number of existing ones have had their status elevated through major investment.

During Mr Michel's presidency, the Seychelles Pension Fund was created, offering one and all the promise of a happier retirement.

As a result of the measures taken, the government has maintained a fiscal surplus despite adverse conditions.

President Michel last year noted that the privatisation programme had not been fully implemented.

Very visible additional steps have been taken this year. For example, thousands of Seychellois have already bought shares in the newly-privatised Seychelles Assurance Company Limited (SACL) which was formerly through the State Assurance Corporation of Seychelles (SACOS).

In fact the delay was occasioned by the need that arose of overseas expertise and guidance in such changes.

In his Budget Address 2006, President Michel said that government aimed to improve security in schools.

“The Ministry of Education and Youth will contract out security services to professional security companies.  They will be responsible on a 24-hour basis for the security of secondary and post-secondary establishments.  The staff and students will also benefit from the presence of security personnel who will ensure a safe working environment and assist the school management in the prevention of anti-social behaviour.”

True to the Head of State’s word, schools are already enjoying the professional services as our picture shows.

There have of course been unexpected turns of events like the Indian Ocean Tuna (IOT) company changing hands leading to concern among the 1,500 Seychellois at the cannery, who feared they would not be compensated as this was not catered for in their terms of employment.

In their case, President Michel stepped in and ordered payment of the compensation by government which owns 40% of shares in the company. Even though the government was not obliged, it has already paid the Seychellois. Furthermore, it has been ensured that their terms of employment with the Lehman Brothers Merchant Bank which took over from Heinz remain the same, while certain aspects have in fact been improved.

Salaries raised

President Michel promised the people of this country that “public servants will perform their jobs with love and enthusiasm if they are well motivated.”

During the district consultations, employees in different public sectors talked of the need for the review of their salaries.

As a result, all public sectors employees who are not on contract are already enjoying between R100 and R300 monthly increments in their salaries and certain private companies have revised their staff salaries accordingly.

Many private sectors organisations have also revised their schemes of service.
In his acceptance speech, President Michel said that he would work to preserve the country’s socio-economic foundation and that he would do all that is possible to steer the country to a new phase of development that would bring more progress.

He talked of equal opportunities for all citizens, the fostering of the development of youths and the protection of the rights of the elderly.

Young people continued to see Youth Aspiration 2013 gather momentum with its own consultations, resulting in the implementation of numerous projects the youths proposed in virtually all the districts.

Senior citizens recently moved into the 100-person capacity R43 million complex at North East Point.

R60m addresses cost of living

This year’s budget has provided for a decrease of R60 million over the 2005 budget through reductions in trades taxes in line with Government’s endeavour to reduce the cost of living and to modernise the economy, facilitate business, create the enabling environment for the private sector.

Seychellois have also seen numerous measures being implemented to lower the cost of living with a wider variety of both food items and prices on the market.

This has followed Budget 2005 measures which are now being complemented by Budget 2006, which is not only improving the fiscal position but also streamlining procedures and making government more efficient and responsive.

As President Michel said when presenting it, Budget 2006, is already allowing the people of Seychelles to see some of the fruits of the hard work of the past few years being distributed and shared among our people.

The budget aimed at a surplus of R177.946 million or 5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and just before we went to the press, the Department of Finance confirmed that the aim is perfectly on target.

Provisions have been made for payments to cater for a number of activities and in support of many national organisations whether they have to do with disaster preparedness, football or religion.

New efforts have been launched against such challenges as drug and alcohol abuse and the spread of HIV/Aids.

Housing

During President Michel’s two years in office, a total of 1,300 new families have been assisted with housing, with 400 entering their newly-built quarters and 900 being assisted with new loans.
This has represented over 5,500 Seychellois.

“But at the pace things are going, we will most likely be talking of thousands of houses per year, not hundreds, considering that at this point in time there are more houses being constructed in Seychelles than any other time in the history of this country,” a senior Ministry of Land Use and Habitat official said.

Another 4,351 families, representing 19,580 people, have benefited from the new home ownership schemes announced by President Michel.

These are the 3,814 families he talked about in his Budget 2006 Address, and the 537 who had occupied their flats for a period less than 15 years who are now buying their flats at substantially discounted prices.

As the foregoing selected facts and figures show, President Michel has kept his word and in fact done more than one would have expected given the difficult times the country has been in.

With the measures that one has seen, one has every reason to expect that as the President said in an interview to mark his two years in office last week, after relaunching the economy with positive results as Seychellois have done under his leadership, the further measures he said need to be taken will be, and they will consolidate what has already been done and ensure the longer term development of Seychelles.