An Economic outlook on the Seychelles

An Economic outlook on the Seychelles

There has been a long hard look at the panic that has been recently spreading around the world because of the fall in various stock markets worldwide. This has lead many arm-chair economists in the Seychelles to speculate on what the rest of this year has in store for the country. The current belief amongst these “text book economists” may hold some value. However, the underlying theories and concepts have no value. The SPPF has succeeded to a certain extent at convincing many people in Seychelles that because something bad has happened in another country, the same scenario will have an effect on or apply to our country. This belief runs throughout the backbone of the current Administration. It is what they want us to believe.

This Government is always linking bad performances elsewhere in the world; even the slightest ripple has an effect here on bad performances in the Seychelles. Any bad performance is a result of external non-Seychelles factors whilst good news is because of the excellent planning and foresight of the government. Blame for such non-Seychelles factors range from causes such as “opposition unpatrioticism”, “The El Nino”, “The war in the Middle East”, “Bird Flu”, “Hurricane in the USA” etc. etc. In these factors everything is beyond control of the government – hence its effects here in the Seychelles should only be accepted, according to the propagandists. Other factors such as good governance, transparency and accountability are being “looked into”. In other words totally ignored because it is against the “good judgement” of the government.

James Alix Michel was the Minister of Finance, a post currently being held by Danny Faure. Disastrous strategies have been implemented by the previous and current Ministers. Under James Alix Michel the economy has been heated to near nuclear meltdown state. Corrective measures have been introduced half-heartedly with no real demonstration of belief in its implementation. Take for example the environment strategies under James Alix Michel – things such as the “Gold Card”, “Green Tax”, “Environment fees”, “Road tax” etc. etc. have been implemented. These have all been for government revenue generation exercises – the actual reasons for their implementation have never ever been evaluated. This lack of transparency is the cause for the lack of motivation in its implementation and the ensuing corruption because of a lack of accountability. And bad preparation is the root for the lack of good governance. Since assuming the Finance portfolio, Danny Faure has remained remarkably subdued. The crucial question here, therefore, is by keeping quiet in this post how far different is Minister Danny Faure from Minister James Alix Michel when he was Finance Minister?