President Danny Faure received the Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Dr Vera Songwe, at State House this morning.

The President welcomed Dr Songwe and her delegation to Seychelles and thanked UNECA for its support and commended its work to drive the economic transformation of Africa. He expressed his wish that through this visit it will help to consolidate the programmes that the Government of Seychelles has with UNECA.

During the meeting, Dr Songwe briefed the President on the work that UNECA has been doing to assist the government of Seychelles in terms of its macro-economic development. They discussed Seychelles’ financial statistics, the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, inequality and growth, as well as the digital economy.

On behalf of UNECA, Dr Songwe also commended President Faure as the Champion for the Development of the Blue Economy in Africa and expressed her support for all the work Seychelles has been doing in the promotion of the concept of the Blue Economy and added that UNECA is ready to help facilitate that across the continent and globally.

Dr Songwe was accompanied by the Acting Director, Sub-regional Office for East Africa, UNECA, Mr Andrew Mold, the Director, Africa Centre for Statistics and Acting Director, Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources Management Division, UNECA, Mr Oliver Chinganya, and Technical Advisor, Office of the Executive Secretary, UNECA, Ms Valeria Mensah.

Also present at the meeting this morning was the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and The Blue Economy, Ambassador Barry Faure, and Director General for International Relations at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mrs Lindy Ernesta.