- Immediately after the IMF approved its credits for restructuring the economy of Seychelles, a Finance Ministry delegation left to Paris to renegotiate national debts and secure new funds from other financial institutions.
The government of Seychelles is optimistic that it will be able to turn its economy in record speed after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week approved of its economic reform programme and extended new credits.
"We are very happy. It is a first for Seychelles. It shows the programme is a solid one. It is a programme that we in Seychelles have worked on so it’s our programme – a home-grown programme, and the IMF has given its seal of approval," Finance Minister Danny Faure said.
He said, as happens with some countries, the IMF could have failed to endorse the programme or postponed doing so, declined to or deferred the offer of a standby arrangement. "Some countries do not get the funds immediately as we have done by getting an immediate disbursement of US$ 9.13 million from the total of US$ 26.1 million," Minister Faure said.
The Minister informed that negotiations had in fact already started with other financial institutions and that his Ministry's principal Secretary for Finance, Ahmed Afif, had left the country for talks with the Paris Club of creditors regarding rescheduling of Seychelles' debts and other groups and individuals who bought Seychelles bonds.
He said the IMF approval would also allow talks with the World Bank towards speeding up of delivery of assistance that Seychelles had requested, and that a team from the Bank was due on the archipelago next month.
Seychelles now also expects to get help from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Union Fund. IMF governor Pierre Laporte, who with Mr Afif had held talks with the AfDB, said the bank was "fully supportive of Seychelles reforms" and would be willing to consider sponsoring a donors' conference.
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