Seychelles gets 100 thousand euro EU grant

Seychelles Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Maurice Loustau Lalanne (right) and Chargé d’Affaires of the European Union Delegation to Mauritius and Seychelles, Guy Samzun (left) signing the agreement (Patrick Joubert, Seychelles Nation)

(Seychelles News Agency) - The Seychelles will receive a 100 thousand grant from the European Union as part of a technical co-operation facility.The agreement, worth about 7 thousand, was signed in Victoria this morning.

“The new 100,000 euro grant will allow us to make sure that our young people get the necessary training to be fully conversant with EU procedures. We pride ourselves on using funds received correctly. It is my wish then that the money be used first to improve human capacity to better understand the reporting style and writing better projects,” said Seychelles Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs Maurice Loustau-Lalanne during a joint news conference after the signing.

The funding will be used by Seychelles in the preparations of the 11th European Development Fund programmes.

"The limited supply of qualified labour in Seychelles is a major constraint to sustainable development and the government of Seychelles is giving high priority to the development of the national capacities. The EU will be primarily focusing on the need to respond to capacity constraints and increased pressure on the existing local resources in order to meet development needs,” said the Chargé d’Affaires of the European Union Delegation Guy Samzun.

During a press conference, Samzun also also informed the Seychelles government of EU’s approval for 1.6 million euros, equivalent to some $ 2.2 million, to be disbursed as budget support for the education sector following adoption of the education strategy by the Seychelles government in December 2013.