Positive reverberations of the African-Asian Forum for the Seychelles

Wednesday, 15 July 2009 11:29 administrator

The Seychellois delegation returned satisfied from the African-Asian Forum in Kampala, Uganda. Satisfied due to the fact that the tourism sector in the Seychelles will benefit from a new level of cooperation with a certain number of African countries.

This is the content of a statement issued by the Media Office of the STB. Marketing and tourism director Alain St Ange led the Seychellois delegation of three who took a part in this African-Asian summit between the 15th and 17th of June.

A summit with 300 participants, comprising of 11 ministers from 27 African and 6 Asian countries. The president of Uganda Yoweri Museveni and the Japanese secretary of state and foreign affairs Seiko Hashimoto, where amongst those present.

Alain St Ange met several high ranking officials from various African countries and encouraged them to establish new tourist links to the Seychelles. If successful, these could prove to create many opportunities for the Seychelles, even in those sectors that have not been considered up until now.

“This forum was a great occasion to make contacts and prepare for the eventuality of an arising cooperation between the various countries “, underlined the leader of the Seychellois delegation after the forum.

Discussions touched on various points, such as the eventuality of signing a memorandum of understanding with Kenya in the weeks to come, or encouraging South African Airlines to start operating flights to the Seychelles as well as the taking up efforts to establish a marketing strategy for South America. (The Seychelles formerly benefitted from air traffic to this part of the world through South Africa.)

The possibility of a link to be established between visitors of Uganda and the Seychelles has also been taken into consideration, as well as the possibility of helping the Seychelles to penetrate well organised markets such as the one in Japan.

According to Alain St Ange this African-Asian forum has been a global success for the Seychellois delegation. While waiting for the results of the discussions, he said that he was very happy about those two days in Uganda. “The Seychelles will benefit from many opportunities that have arisen during this meeting”, he concluded.