The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission's new head to Seychelles, Mr. Wendell Samuel, paid a courtesy call on President James Michel at State House today. He was accompanied by Senior Economist for the African Department, Mr. Joseph Thornton and the Advisor to the Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund for the Asia-Pacific constituency, Mr. Ronald Cafrine.

Mr. Wendell and his delegation are currently in Seychelles to conduct the third review under the Extended Fund Facility, which was approved on 4th June 2014.

President Michel welcomed Mr. Samuel and noted there exists a fruitful partnership between Seychelles and IMF since it started the macroeconomic reform programme in 2008. He further expressed Seychelles’ wish to continue on the programme for future success.

“We thank IMF for its continued support to our economic programme following the launch of our economic reforms. This is indeed a far-reaching programme which I believe has had an excellent start. IMF’s assistance is greatly appreciated. We greatly value your support in the pursuit of further progress for our reforms,” said President Michel.

During the meeting, the President and Mr. Samuel discussed lengthily on how the programme has borne fruit and continues to bear fruit. They spoke about the way Seychelles has been able to successfully restructure most of its external debt obligations, returning Seychelles to a path of towards sustainable debt levels. They further noted that much progress has been achieved in terms of structural reforms, whereby the country has met most of its quantitative programme targets. These included a surplus and increase in foreign exchange reserves, which has boosted the resilience of the economy.

“We will continue with structural reforms that make way for the creation of wealth through SME's and by providing more space for the private sector to operate and thrive. In this regard, we lay a lot of emphasis on capacity building and empowerment of our youth, entrepreneurs and businessmen,” added President Michel.

Regarding public enterprises, the President said it is the policy of the government to ensure that they become competitive and generate their own profits and be financially viable without any governmental financial assistance.

“Many challenges still lie ahead and with IMF’s help we will be able together to meet these challenges in the interest of building a much stronger economy for the people of Seychelles. What is really important is to ensure that the gains and benefits of the economic programme reach the people,” concluded Mr. Michel.

Also present at the meeting, was the Minister for Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy, Mr. Jean-Paul Adam, the Governor of the Central Bank of Seychelles, Ms. Caroline Abel and the President’s Diplomatic Adviser, Ambassador Callixte D’Offay.