SEYCHELLES REPRESENTATIVE ATTENDS MALDIVES’ CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT
Former Seychelles president, James R. Mancham, accepted the invitation of Mohamed Nasheed, president-elect of the Republic of the Maldives, to attend his swearing in ceremony as the president of the Republic of the Maldives, which took place on November 11, 2008 at Dharubaaruge, Malé, Maldives.
In 2005, former President Mancham was one of the prominent world Leaders who paid a visit on President-elect Mohamed Nasheed, who was then under house-arrest in the Maldives. Mr. Mancham made time to visit Mr. Nasheed when he was in Maldives where he had been invited to deliver a keynote address on national unity and reconciliation at the annual Maldivian Democratic Party’s Convention.
SRI LANKAN JUDGE TO BE APPOINTED TO SEYCHELLES BENCH
The Seychelles Constitutional Appointments Authority (CAA) is recommending appointment of a Sri Lankan, Mr Mohan Nitanyit Burhan as one of the country’s new judge. This follows the appointment last week of a Tanzanian Magistrate.
Seychelles remains one of the countries where the majority of its judges are foreign nationals. The recently appointed chief justice is also of Sri Lankan nationality who took up Seychellois citizenship once in position in Seychelles.
These Indian Ocean Islands have an adequate number of local legal practitioners and past chief justices until the Seychelles Independence from Great Britain in 1976 had been “home grown” Seychellois. The current attorney general is also from Sri Lanka and he also replaced a long list of Seychellois attorney generals.
It has also been confirmed this week that the application of Seychelloise, Mrs .Nicole Tirant-Gherardi, for a position as a Seychelles judge has been turned down.
IMF BACKS THE SEYCHELLES REFORM PROGRAMME AND OPPOSITION LEADER REACTS TO NEW MEASURES
Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has welcomed the Seychelles economic reform program. He has proposed that the IMF supports the program with an IMF stand-by agreement. The Seychelles government’s daily newspaper Nation reported that Mr. Strauss-Khan has said, in a communiqué published on the institution’s website, that “the Seychelles authorities program is wide-ranging and bold, and I welcome the steps announced by President James Michel and the related legislative changes adopted by parliament.”
He added: “These include fundamental liberalization of the country’s exchange regime that will enable a floating of the rupee, significant and sustained fiscal tightening, and reform of monetary policies to promote liquidity management based on indirect instruments.” “The reforms merit the strong support of the international community and I am pleased to propose to the IMF’s executive board that the Fund supports the government’s economic reform program under a stand-by agreement.”
The Seychelles opposition leader, Wavel Ramkalawan, on his part said: “As a Seychellois and a political party leader, I want Seychelles to come out of this crisis and start a new economic way which is more certain and prosperous. I am here to work for Seychelles. My role is to give my point of view, say where things are going wrong and give my opinion on how they should go.” Mr. Ramkalawan also called for tougher measures to fight corruption.
CARREFOUR CONFIRMS MOVE INTO SEYCHELLES
The “foundation stone” for Carrefour’s Shopping Complex was laid this week by the Seychelles Finance Minister Danny Faure in the presence of Seychelles President James Michel. Also present were Francois Caille, Caille Group of La Reunion, and Serge Carrasco, who is responsible for the development of the Carrefour Group in the Indian Ocean.
The Carrefour’s new center will have 5200 meters square that will have a Hypermarket of 32oo meter-square along a number of smaller individual shops. The arrival of this international group in Seychelles spells the eminent demise of the Seychelles Trading Company, the brainchild of former President Albert Rene, which for many years was the government’s trading company that managed imports of all basic food in the islands.
ANNUAL ‘LA DIGUE OFFSHORE FISHING TOURNAMENT’ BRINGS IN 4198 KILOS OF FISH
A record eighteen boats from Mahé, Praslin and La Digue ventured offshore at 3:00 am on Saturday and returned at 5:00 pm to the La Passe La Digue Jetty with a record 4,198 kilograms of fish in this exciting and competitive offshore fishing tournament organized by the Marine Charter Association.
The tournament, which was on its ninth edition, saw a record crowd of locals and tourists alike gathered at the La Digue Jetty to watch the weighing in of sailfish, tuna, carangue (trevally), bourgeois (red snapper), vieilles (grouper) and many other colorful species of fish. Although no marlin was caught this year, an exceptionally large 47-kilo sailfish was brought in by Praslin-based “True Colour” followed by a 44 kilo Dogtooth Tuna landed by first-timer “Blue Girl.” The mood at the La Digue jetty was jovial as the local DJ entertained the crowd with modern and local island music while the boat skippers jockeyed for position to bring their boats to their jetty for their turn to weigh their respective catches.
Boat “Blue Wave” skippered by Gonsalves (Speedy) Larue and his young team of anglers which included son Christian “Tola”, lawyer Elvis Chetty and Henri Eichler took home SR 3,000 cash and the beautiful winner’s trophy, narrowly beating out newcomer “Heartbeat” by a mere two points. Last year’s winner and tournament favorite “Island Girl” won the Total Overall Catch as well as the Average Catch trophies and tied for 3rd place with “Eye Catcha.”
The prize-giving BBQ lunch was held on Sunday at the La Digue Fun Park where popular Paradise-FM DJ Sean was on hand as master of ceremony and call up the sponsors to hand out cash prizes and trophies to the winning teams. The crowd was also entertained by local performers and models. During the ceremony, the chairman of the Marine Charter Association presented a check of SR 7,500 to the La Digue Elderly Home and another check of SR 7,500 was presented to the La Digue Disabled Committee by the MCA treasurer Mr. Gonsalves Larue. Mr. Houareau noted that all profits from last year’s tournament had been returned to La Digue for charitable causes and that all future tournament proceeds will continue to benefit the people of La Digue.
(US$1.00=8.91 Seychelles rupee)