08.27.10
Posted in Business and Economy, Seychelles infrastructure at 7:09 am by Robert Klien
Bharti Airtel informed about its plans to buy 100% stake in Telecom Seychelles for the price of US$62 million. Prior to this deal, Bharti purchased Zain Telecom’s Africa assets for US$10.7 billion, and with the acquision of Telecom Seychelles the company will expand to 19 countries in Africa.
Bharti Airtel’s spokesperson said that the company has never had any stake in Telecom Seychelles, and it was only using its brand name Airtel. Now Bharti Airtel will acquire all stake from its promoters to make it part of African operations.
Telecom Seychelles Limited started its operations in 1998 by offering mobile services. Today it has over 57% stake of the mobile market in Seychelles, offering 3G mobile and integrated wireline services across the country.
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08.19.10
Posted in International Organisations, International relations, Seychelles government at 2:18 pm by Robert Klien
Seychelles has joined the group of countries that ratified the founding Rome statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the independent tribunal to try genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Seychelles will become its 112th member state on November 1, 2010.
In its statement, the ICC welcomed the decision of the country “to join the growing group of states determined to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes.”
The International Criminal Court is operating in The Hague since 2002. Now the court is considering cases in five countries, including Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda. Warrants have been issued by the ICC against 13 persons, most notably for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
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08.13.10
Posted in Financial Services, International Organisations, International relations, Seychelles government at 2:51 pm by Robert Klien
The Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) was signed between the Seychelles and the Netherlands. This is the first agreement of this kind for the Seychelles, but not the last one, the Seychelles government following its policy to develop Seychelles international business and financial services sector.
The Seychelles and the Netherlands have agreed to incorporate the OECD standard for such agreements into their TIEA. This will encourage tax authorities of both parties to exchange taxpayer information for specific purposes, including countering tax evasion and money laundering. Also, according to the agreement , neither tax authority can refuse to provide information solely because it does not require the information for domestic purposes, or because it is held by a bank or similar institution.
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08.05.10
Posted in International Organisations, Seychelles government, Seychelles legislation at 11:55 am by Robert Klien
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Seychelles is meeting the performance criteria under its Extended Funds Facility, namely in the launch of tax reforms.
A comprehensive tax reform was launched by the Seychelles government with the budget 2010. The first stage of it was the introduction of a revised Business Tax Act from January 1, 2010. Business tax reform widened the tax base and provided for gradual reduction in tax rates.
The second stage has been the introduction of a withholding-based personal income tax on wages from July 1, 2010. Seychelles government is planning to broaden the application of personal income tax to other sources of domestic-sourced income, as the new system becomes established. From January 1, 2011, Personal Income Tax rates will be set at 15% for all categories of workers.
The last stage will be the introduction of a value-added tax (VAT) from January 1, 2012, which will take the place of multiple-rate goods and services tax (GST).
Along with these reforms, revenue administration will be also modernized. By the time of the tax reform, the Seychelles government’s policy will not provide new tax incentives and exemptions.
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07.29.10
Posted in International relations, Seychelles government at 12:41 pm by Robert Klien
The new Pakistani ambassador to Seychelles has said that he is looking forward to further enhance relations between Pakistan and Seychelles.
On July 13, Pakistani ambassador Muhammad Siddique presented his credentials to Seychelles’ President James Michel. Also, he met with Vice-President Danny Faure at State House. On July 14, he called on the Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Patrick Herminie.
After his accreditation visit, Siddique described the cooperation between the 2 countries as very friendly. He also said that the possibilities for further agreements on trade, tourism, education, health and fisheries were discussed during the meeting.
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07.27.10
Posted in International relations, Seychelles government at 12:29 pm by Robert Klien
With a view to further strengthen the bilateral defence ties as well as to increase cooperation in anti-piracy operations, India’s Defence Minister A K Antony visited Seychelles.
The 2-day visit day to Seychelles started on July 18.
On his visit, Indian Defence Minister was accompanied by Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and Navy Vice Chief Vice Admiral D K Dewan.
The Defence Minister held discussions with the Seychelles leadership on bilateral defence cooperation and implementation of the provisions of the defence cooperation Memorandum of Understanding between Seychelles and India. Also, the 2 sides discussed various security issues that included the security situation in the Indian Ocean region and the spread of piracy in and from the Gulf of Aden.
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07.23.10
Posted in Seychelles government, Seychelles' statistics at 12:28 pm by Robert Klien
On July 12, Seychellois President James Michel said that piracy in the Indian Ocean has affected insurance costs. Because of piracy threats, insurance costs in Seychelles soared, which decreased ports and fishery revenue.
President said: “Insurance costs have ballooned by 50%. Port and fisheries receipts have declined by 30%”. He also added that while trade levels go down, “anarchy is being exported across our region”.
According to Michel, piracy caused the loss of 4% of the Seychelles’ GDP in 2009.
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07.19.10
Posted in International relations at 7:49 pm by Robert Klien
On July 11, 2010, members of a joint management committee from Seychelles and Mauritius had a meeting aimed to discuss the administrative aspects of the eventual sharing of an extended seabed which is part of the Mascarene Plateau.
This meeting is the 2nd of its kind. It was visited by the head of the Seychelles delegation Dr Rolph Payet and the head of the Mauritian delegation Suresh Seeballuck.
Seychelles and Mauritius prepared to present their defence in August 2010 to the United Nations Commission for the joint management of this 400 000 km squares extended continental shelf (ECS).
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07.16.10
Posted in Seychelles' statistics at 7:48 pm by Robert Klien
In July 2010, Seychelles’ National Statistics Bureau published consumer price statistics.
According to the published data, consumer prices in Seychelles fell 3.6% in June 2010 as compared with June 2009. The All Items CPI in June 2010 stood at 180.7 compared to 187.4 a year ago.
The Consumer Price Index or CPI is an index or tool used to measure price changes in goods and services with reference to a base period for which the index is set to equal 100. An increase or a decrease in this index reflects an increase or decrease in the price of the good or service compared to the price in the base period. It should be noted that rapid increases in the index reveal that the market structure is changing. The movement in index from period to period can be expressed as a percentage change or changes in index points.
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07.13.10
Posted in International Organisations, International relations, Seychelles government at 10:54 am by Robert Klien
On July 5, a delegation from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) met Vice-President and Minister for Finance and Trade Danny Faure and other high government officials.
On July 6, the WTO delegation held talks with Seychelles’ President James Michel at State House.
On July 7, the delegation met assembly speaker Dr Patrick Herminie and members of its international affairs committee.
The WTO delegation was headed by Hilda Al-Hinai, the chairperson of Seychelles’ WTO accession working party and Oman’s deputy ambassador at the world trade body. She came to have discussions with various stakeholders. The delegation was accompanied by Seychelles’ ambassador to the European Union Vivianne Fock-Tave and our chief negotiator for the WTO accession, Charles Morin.
Ms Al-Hinai said that the talks have shown a very high level of commitment from the government of Seychelles towards its accession to the WTO, and she believes that this will move things forward.
It is worth mentioning that the jurisdiction restarted the process of joining the WTO in 2008.
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