(3 Minutes Read)
The World Bank expressed its interest in opening an office in the Seychelles way back in March last year. It will open an office in Seychelles once the formalities are done through an MoU, said the country director for Seychelles Idah Pswarayi-Riddihough on Monday, who paid a courtesy call to President Wavel Ramkalawan at the State House.
Following her meeting with President Ramkalawan, the country director told reporters that her visit had three main objectives. The first is the continuation of the country partnership framework and the second on the climate change report and the way forward. The final one is to take a closer view of the youths at risk in the country – young school dropouts and teenage pregnancies. It is the moment now to see how to safeguard the youth of Seychelles to be productive members of society in the future.
Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, suffered two major blows on December 7. Heavy rainfall caused severe damage to roads, flooding, and landslides, with damage to several properties, and three people died. The same day, an explosion of four containers of explosives at a quarrying company in the Providence Industrial Estate caused massive damage to residential homes and commercial buildings, along the east coast of the main island of Mahe. When the disaster hit Seychelles, the World Bank executive director for a group of 22 countries, including Seychelles, came to the island nation a few days later to offer sympathies and avenues of assistance.
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The World Bank plans to assess the situation and work much closer with the government and other partners here in the country to understand much better what needs to be done. The World Bank will also continue to give Seychelles budget support, and Pswarayi-Riddihough said, The WB finished the third series in December and is starting the first one. The other area of cooperation is tourism as one cannot continue to use the same structure in tourism, one needs to do something that maybe creates more in the niche market. She explained that such an approach will include the population in the generation of revenue. Renewable energy is also being discussed so that Seychelles does not remain vulnerable to the idea of continually buying diesel and when the market changes outside it becomes an issue.
