Seychelles’ business community calls for joint venture with government.

The Seychelles’ business community is calling on the government to facilitate their task in achieving one of the Tunis goals: to look at ways of using information and communication technologies to improve living standards in the community.

“By investing together in the information society we’ll share its ownership and develop it together for the benefits of the Seychellois community,” says the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry(SCCI) ’s Secretary General Nicole Tirant-Gherardi.

SCCI is a member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and was represented at WSIS in Tunis by CCBI – the Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors chaired by ICC.

The need to develop a public-private partnership in the information society is because each side compliments the other.

The government in Seychelles is responsible for providing: education and training, the rule of law, a neutral competitive marketplace and the protection of intellectual property.

On its part the business community brings with it invaluable market experience and the ability to put that knowledge into practice.

“There’s a need for a more interactive involvement by the government in the local ICT industry. Setting regulations that simply get accepted doesn’t go far enough. Both sides should sit down and exchange views on ways of improving the lives of every person on these islands,” says Galen Bresson of The Home Electronic Shop.

The business community is urging the government to open up dialogue on how they can share the financing cost of joining the SAFE (South Africa-Far East) fibre-optic network. SAFE is a connection of over 13,800 km from Cape Town in South Africa to Malaysia, linking Seychelles’ neighbours Mauritius, Reunion and India on the way.

“This connection will make trade and communication easier between the international markets and Seychelles with added high capacity, speed and reliability and costumers will observe a great drop in Internet charges,” says ATLAS’ Executive Chairman, Mark Hoareau.

The private sector also believes the government should seriously consider plans of selling Seychelles as an ideal destination for the setting up of a “Silicon Valley,” as an additional export service to boost the country’s decelerating economy.

“Seychelles is well placed to be competitive in this sector. We are perfectly situated between the European and Asian time zones, have an educated bi-lingual population, a health hazards free and politically stable country. If those won’t sell we still have the sun, sea and sand,” concludes SBC News journalist Lindy Vital.

In any community ICTs will flourish only if business investment and national governments work in close consultation with civil society, interest groups and the scientific and technical communities. By coming together they’ll be capable of creating an environment in which there’ll be an improvement in the standard of living.