The first Ambassador of Fiji to Seychelles, Mr. Ravindran R. Nair, presented his credentials to President James Michel at State House this morning.

President Michel said he welcomed Fiji's decision to establish closer ties with Seychelles.

"We are members of the same family of small island states and it is important for us to work together, especially in the promotion of the blue economy in the world development agenda," said President Michel during the meeting.

After the accreditation ceremony Ambassador Nair told the national media that Fiji and Seychelles have many commonalities, around which a good partnership can be built.

"We have a lot in common and as there is a meeting coming up of small island developing states in Samoa, we are going to discuss more of our commonalities; we want to have a voice in the international sphere, so that they recognise our distinct needs and requirements. So putting the island countries together as one voice and having a forum, having space for our voice, is very important. And that is why I am here, to share the friendship and the kinship that we have with the Seychelles. My President and my Prime Minister are very keen for us to develop this relationship further,” said the Ambassador.

Ambassador Nair noted that both Seychelles and Fiji have a tourism industry, and that Fiji is interested to cooperate in this area and share experiences. The Ambassador also noted that Seychelles relies on foreign workers in its hospitality industry as the country has a small population and limited resources in employment.

"Our people have a nice flair for hospitality, they are very good at it...(..) so I was asking your President and your Foreign Minister, to see if we can build a relationship around that, to see if we can send our Fijians to work in the hospitality industry... ..(..)..we can work on an agreement on human resources," said the Ambassador.

He said there was also an opportunity for Fiji's teachers to help Seychelles in the education sector, in times when there are shortages of teachers in Seychelles, as both have education systems based on the British schooling model.

Ambassador Nair is based in Abu Dhabi. The embassy opened in 2012.