President James Michel travels to Abu Dhabi on Monday to address the Blue Economy Summit, which Seychelles is co-hosting with the United Arab Emirates. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean-Paul Adam, and the Minister for Environment and Energy, Professor Rolph Payet will be chairing the summit discussions, with the participation of the Minister of State of the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber.

The President will be joined at the summit by the President of the 69th Session on the United Nations General Assembly, Ambassador John Ashe and the Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Tonga, Lord Tu‘ivakanō, the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Environment Facility(GEF), Dr Naoko Ishii, Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) Mr. José Graziano da Silva, as well government ministers, experts and high-level representatives from around the world.

The ‘Blue Economy Summit’ will coincide with the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), the largest gathering in the region on Sustainability and is the opportune platform for Seychelles to promote the concept of the ‘Blue Economy.’

The goal of the Abu Dhabi meeting is to discuss how to utilise the Blue Economy as a tool to shift development in SIDS and coastal states towards a sustainable development trajectory building on the Rio+20 consensus.