President Danny Faure met with the Country Director for Seychelles at the World Bank, Mr Mark Lundell, at State House yesterday afternoon. Mr Lundell and his delegation are in Seychelles to implement the elaboration of the country partnership framework with the Seychelles.

The President welcomed Mr Lundell to Seychelles and emphasised the need for the government to look at the report produced in May 2017 by the World Bank and to merge it with new policies in different sectors.

“The work that the World Bank has been doing with us has helped us tremendously. You have assisted us in different sectors such as health, social protection, pension, public administration, and tourism amongst others. Your assistance with the health sector led to the creation of the Health Care Agency through the re-organisation of the Ministry of Health. Your input on our population demographics was invaluable to our recent policy initiative to increase the retirement age. Now we need to ensure our development remains sustainable,” said President Faure.

Based on meetings held with different sectors and Ministries so far, Mr Lundell briefed the President on the various areas the World Bank could be of assistance to Seychelles. These areas include the Blue Economy, tourism, employment, social protection, education, and youth empowerment among others.

Speaking to the national press after the meeting, Mr Lundell said that he is very glad to have been able to meet with the President. Based on the systematic report that was produced by the World Bank and shared locally in May, he informed that as of next year, they will try to focus on four or five areas and develop a five year strategy.

“There are about twelve or thirteen different areas including public utilities, renewable energy, public finance, and Programme Based Budgeting which are currently active in terms of development work. Some of those will stay but we will look to see how to bring in two or three more areas each year that have a time period of interaction of two years,” said Mr Lundell.

The World Bank programme consists of a range of analytical work, much of which is financed through reimbursable advisory services, that provide technical assistance in increasing private sector growth, public financial management, State Owned Enterprise reform, and the social sectors.

The meeting was also attended by the Minister for Finance, Trade and Economic Planning, Dr Peter Larose, the Economic Advisor to the President, Mr Bertrand Belle, and the Principal Secretary for Economic Planning, Mrs Elizabeth Agathine.