London, United Kingdom: The President of the Republic, Mr Danny Faure, spoke at the Commonwealth Business Forum today at the Mansion House, on the theme ‘Building the Future’. President Faure was invited to open the session and discuss Seychelles’ innovative financing methods to fund the blue economy.

President Faure’s intervention focussed on the Seychelles example in developing sustainable blue finance projects, and the advantages of investing in sustainable development and Green Finance.

“Firstly, one must understand Seychelles’ context.  We have an Exclusive Economic Zone of 1.4 million square kilometres. That is more than twice the area of Madagascar. Our landmass on the other hand is only 455 square kilometres, or about one third the size of London. So for us, like for many small island nations, green is blue,” said President Faure.

“As a high-income country since 2015, we have turned to innovative finance to fund our blue economy initiatives. For us, green finance is blue finance and it is all about sustainability. We have piloted, with some success, some ‘blue’ finance projects, including the Debt Swap for Conservation and Climate Adaptation, with the support of the Paris Club of Creditors and The Nature Conservancy at a value of US$ 21.6 million.

Thanks to the Debt swap, Seychelles is developing a marine spatial plan of our entire EEZ, which we will have finalised by 2020. Already, 15% of EEZ - or 200,000 square kilometres - has been designated as marine protected areas and a remaining 15 % will be designated by 2020.

The second initiative is the Seychelles Sovereign Blue Bond at a value of US$15 million.  This was designed with the support of the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and The Prince of Wales’ Charities International Sustainability Unit. This will include blue grants for fisheries reform and concessionary blue loans that will enable businesses to improve their value chains to reduce overcapacity and overfishing.

We are now interested in exploring how blue finance can assist us with emerging technology-based sectors, such as renewable energy, waste management and biotechnology.  We also recognise the need for blue finance to support education and training, without which we could not sustain our development over the long term,” said the President.

The Business Forum addresses the CHOGM 2018 theme ‘Towards a common future’ and focuses on six key areas; accessing modern financial services, easing the pathway for business and growth, harnessing Commonwealth technology and innovation, creating a new attitude to sustainable business, mobilising an export economy and attracting inward investment.