Italian ambassador to Seychelles pledges more training support, mainly in budget control

Diplomacy |Author: Rita Joubert-Lawen Edited by: Betymie Bonnelame | May 5, 2022, Thursday @ 16:18| 4098 views

Pieri met with President Wavel Ramkalawan for the first time since he was elected in October 2020. (Seychelles Nation)

Seychelles will benefit from more training opportunities from Italy to help boost the knowledge of its workforce, said the Italian ambassador to the island nation on Thursday.

Ambassador Alberto Pieri made the statement to the press after his first courtesy meeting with President Wavel Ramkalawan since he was elected in October 2020. It is not their first meeting as they previously held discussions when Ramkalawan was the leader of the opposition.

"Training has been a consolidated area of cooperation, particularly in the area of budget control," he added. 

Pieri, who is based in Nairobi and was accredited in 2019, reiterated his government's commitment to further working with Seychelles in the field.

Numerous training courses have been held for Seychellois officials in areas such as handling the electoral process as well as maritime security.

The ambassador explained that such courses "reflect our willingness to continue to collaborate with Seychelles on this initiative of capacity building."

Other areas discussed were the maritime security field and the participation of the Italian Navy in the EU-NAVFOR Atalanta operation as well as culture and tourism.

"We talked about cultural collaborations and we both agreed that there was a margin to strengthen our bilateral ties in different areas," he added.

Pieri commended Seychelles on the efforts it is making to ensure the recovery of its tourism industry, the top pillar of the island nation's economy.

He highlighted the willingness of Seychelles not only to recover "but also understand from the past experience of the pandemic what are the right measures to take and the right policies to adopt to move forward."

Pieri said that his country is "happy to contribute with tourists from Italy, visiting the Seychelles again as was the case before the pandemic,"

This he said will lay the ground for collaborations in other sectors.

Seychelles and Italy established bilateral relations in June 1976 and before the pandemic, it was the fourth highest source of visitors for the island nation.

Italy was the fourth top source market in 2019 with 27,289 visitors but the figures dropped to 2,884 in 2020, amid travel restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, and rose slightly to 3,313 in 2021.


Tags: EU-NAVFOR Atalanta operation

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