Seychelles celebrates National Day at China expo |22 June 2010

The celebrations were attended by high-level officials including Jiang Zheng Yun, deputy commissioner general of the Chinese government, and Hu Jinjun, deputy director general, Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.

Also present was Seychelles’ ambassador to China Philippe Le Gall, who is also commissioner of Seychelles’ pavilion at the expo and was elected last year as a member of the World Expo steering committee.

Dr Sidney To, the embassy’s counsellor, and Seychelles’ honorary consuls in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Thailand were at the expo site as well as Shanghai-based Seychellois students and many friends of Seychelles.

To make the National Day celebrations even more vibrant, a delegation had come from Seychelles headed by Lydia Charlie, director of arts and cultural development at the National Arts Council, and comprising eight dancers and eight singers and musicians from the Zez group, including leader Guy Belle, as well as the NAC’s international cooperation, media and marketing director, Larrey Chetty.

During the official ceremony at the Expo Centre, Mr Jiang said Seychelles is presenting “an ingenious pavilion to the public, which allows visitors to enjoy the breathtaking scenery of Seychelles and the rich Creole culture, and to understand Seychelles’ interpretation of urban civilisation and harmonious life”.

Mr Jiang added: “Seychelles and China have enjoyed a long-lasting friendship – 34 years since the opening of diplomatic relations – during which the two countries have treated each other with sincerity, equality and mutual support which are a perfect example of cooperation between countries different in size and social systems.”

He said Seychelles was a strong supporter when China was bidding for the Expo 2010 and was among the first batch of countries to confirm they would take part.

“To show support for Shanghai and China, Seychelles has offered a precious pair of giant land tortoises, and President James Michel of Seychelles graced the opening ceremony with his presence.”

Mr Le Gall said: “Seychelles is reputed to be one of the most beautiful tourism destinations on earth, and our country’s pavilion focuses on what we call the Seychellois exception – our way of understanding the expo theme as the quest for a harmonious balance between economic and social development on the one hand, and the protection of nature and the promotion of culture on the other hand.”

He said Seychelles has taken part in the Shanghai expo to share with other countries and the public at large our philosophy of urban development and the practical ways we use to face today’s challenges, especially those related to climate change, “so tough for small island developing states”.

“We also came to Shanghai because we want this Seychellois exception to be part and parcel of the legacy of the World Expo and contribute to turning the expo theme into a principle, the principle of Shanghai: Better City, Better Life, that future generations will spontaneously and collectively apply for the good of our planet,” Mr Le Gall added.
 
He then invited visitors to take part in a competition to give nicknames to the pair of giant tortoises offered by Seychelles.

The Chinese always give names to pandas offered to other countries, and tortoises have already proved to be a popular attraction at Shanghai Zoo, next to the pandas specially brought from Sichuan province for the World Expo.

The winner of this light-hearted contest will be presented with a coco de mer on September 22 when Seychelles is in charge of the rotating direction of the African pavilion, and at a time when many Seychellois travel agents and Seychelles Tourism Board representatives are expected to be in Shanghai to promote the destination.

Mr Le Gall’s address was followed by Zez’s first performance, and their traditional and modern music and dance scored a tremendous success, not just in the Expo Centre but later that day on the central stage of the African joint pavilion.

Senior officers from the African department of the World Expo said they were the best performing group from Africa and the Indian Ocean since the opening of the World Expo.

Zez, who benefited from the sponsorship of businessman James Liao for their costumes, are expected to perform 10 times during the delegation’s stay in Shanghai, but the group were so popular that even the pavilion of China’s No 1 tourism city, Hangzhou, invited them to perform on their own stage.

The Seychellois delegation’s visit coincided with the opening of an exhibition called Gilbert Pool and Seychelles’ Smile.
For 10 days, 17 pictures by the Seychellois photographer have welcomed visitors – an average of 40,000 a day – to the African joint pavilion, which is now becoming the most visited pavilion. Mr Pool’s book Nou was also presented as a gift to Chinese officials.

Although the World Expo lasts only 24 weeks, and there are 42 African countries represented in the African joint pavilion, Seychelles will occupy for nearly one month the only available exhibition site.

Works by Nigel Henry and Michael Adams will also be on display in that area in the weeks to come, over and above the permanent exhibition of two works by Léon Radegonde and Emmanuel d’Offay.

Noticing this interest, Mr Le Gall said to a group of Chinese reporters that “there is now in Shanghai a sudden passion for Seychelles, and the country’s pavilion is a real hive of activity each day”. 

A full set of promotional material in Chinese about Seychelles as a tourism destination and an investment and offshore hub is being distributed to visitors, with a special edition of China’s Travel News Weekly, sponsored by the STB, now as well as the Chinese-English version of Seychelles’ 2010 Leisure and Business Guide launched to mark President Michel’s visit to China on May 1.

On a daily basis the pavilion is being brightened up by Marie-Paule Lespérance and Geneviève Leopold, with the help of Shanghai-based Seychellois students, and supervised by Li Huanhuan, the assistant to Seychelles’ commissioner.

Rachel Shen, the ambassador’s secretary, and Carrie Zheng, the embassy’s interpreter and press officer, are in charge of administration and media relations.

Puzzled by the unique design of Seychelles’ pavilion, with Michael Adams’ colourful vision of the archipelago, an artificial palm tree forest and a beach with full-size granite rocks, and discovering with amazement the real coco de mer presented in a glass cabinet, visitors have been spending time watching videos on Seychelles’ unique flora and fauna, in particular the Aldabra tortoises.

Their attention has also been caught by the model boats presented in another glass cabinet. Craftsman Jean-Louis Marchesseau is expected to organise in the coming months a workshop giving visitors a chance to discover the know-know developed in Seychelles by the model industry.

Seychelles will play a full part in the activities planned on September 20 on the occasion of a  Journée de la Francophonie lors de l’Exposition Universelle de Shanghai, and the Seychellois pavilion will be one of the few staging points for a treasure hunt in which many teams of French-speaking students, both Chinese and foreigners, will take part.

On June 18, a regional meeting of Seychelles’ consuls, chaired by Mr Le Gall, took place in Shanghai as a follow-up to last year’s consuls’ conference on Mahe to keep them posted on the latest developments in Seychelles and the common priorities throughout 2010 and 2011 to promote the country’s economic interests.

Both Seychelles’ international symposium on piracy, to be held in July, and Seychelles’ international investment forum scheduled for Belgium in September were discussed.

The official programme of events in Shanghai on June 18 ended with a dinner whose guest of honour was Zhang Chunxiang, senior vice-president of Huawei, China’s No.1 company in the field of telecommunications, and a former Chinese ambassador to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Huawei agreed to sponsor a vehicle for Seychelles’ pavilion during the World Expo.

Other guests included Seychelles’ consuls in the region, the vice-president of Unique, the Seychelles pavilion designer, and a group of businessmen from Guangdong province who expressed an interest in exploring cooperation and investment in Seychelles.