Digitalising the Assembly

For too long now, local ICT experts have blamed the Seychelles’ National Assembly in particular for failing to make use of modern communication methods such as the Internet.

One critic says, “the Assembly is failing to communicate effectively with the public it serves. A website is part of a wider reform needed to improve communication with the public, its interactivity will fulfil its role as a portal for democracy.”

But with a little help from their friends, the Chinese, the organisation, procedures and general ethos of the National Assembly may not be “seriously out of date” for very long.

The institution recently received a donation worth US $50,000 of ICT equipment from the National People’s Congress of the Republic of China.

The equipment comprised 20 computer sets, 10 printers, 5 laptops, 10 sets of cartridge, 4 TV sets, 4 DVD players and 4 mobile phones.

Whilst the Chinese Ambassador to Seychelles, Geng Wenbing chose to call the donation “a clear evidence of continued collaboration between the two countries”, the speaker of the National Assemble, Francis MacGregor, called it “an ideal tool to capture the gist of the Assembly’s work.”

In March last year the Assembly received another donation of multi-media equipment from the Chinese government worth US $125,000, to help it record its own proceedings.

Once settled in its new building at Bel Eau in 2007, the National Assembly looks set to be well equipped to engage a far wider audience than it currently does.

Mapping Seychelles Electronically

A 70, 000 euro project to electronically map out Seychelles’s 25 districts is due to complete in September 2006.

The Swiss expert responsible for the project, Marc Soutter says the use of GIS technology “will be a vital tool for developers, students and tourists alike to use the data into more interactive ways.”

The project is sponsored by the International Association of French-speaking Mayors.

Geographic information system (GIS) is a computer-based tool for mapping and analyzing referenced geographical data.

The director for the GIS Centre, in the Ministry of Land Use and Habitat, Francis Coeur de Lion, explains that “GIS technology integrates common database operations such as query and statistical analysis with the unique visualization and geographic analysis benefits offered by maps.”

The technology was introduced in Seychelles during the early-1990s and the department of local government is the latest state agency to use it.

It is being used in town planning, creation of a coastal sensitivity atlas, and management of wetlands, agriculture and other infrastructure such as water pipes, electric poles and drainage system.

Its mostly ministries responsible for natural resources and land use which are making use of this system.

Yet the use of GIS is still in the development stage in Seychelles and presently no data are available online, but this should be operational before the end of 2006.

Mr Coeur de Lion, says “the Centre has already acquired and tested appropriate software, designed for Internet mapping and web GIS, which allows users to access geographic information through their web browser. The long term plan is to encourage more public access to such datasets.”

One such initiative is a UNEP sponsored program aimed at getting the islands of the western Indian Ocean and East African countries alike to collect and share data through a regional portal, that will address the major environmental problems and issues related to the degradation of the marine and coastal environment resulting from land-based activities in the region.

Seychelles joins forces

A new Regional Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in which Seychelles is collaborating has gone on line in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

The centre is design to provide rapid response to accidents at sea and the growing threat to commercial shipping posed by pirates off the coast of Somalia.

According to a Seychelles Coast Guard official Captain Tom Estico, “the centre will monitor the Indian Ocean coastline from Somalia, Seychelles, Kenya and Tanzania and be linked with a similar facility in Cape Town, South Africa.”

The $1.6m Regional Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre was part funded by the UN's International Maritime Organization
(IMO), under which Seychelles has benefited with over $300, 000 of equipment.

It is equipped with state-of-the-art maritime communications technology and uses satellite technology to collect data from ships and relay information to warships, in nearby waters.

“We are now able to keep a 24-hour watch on ships and other marine vessels in the region and provide necessary assistance upon receiving information about incidents requiring such assistance,” Estico said.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has reported at least 41 attacks on ships off the Somali coast since mid-March of last year, making the Somali waters the world's most dangerous.

Moving education with e-learning.

Seychelles’ department of education received a boost following a ten-day workshop, to deliver on-line courses.

According to Anne Lafortune, the Director general of Technical and Further Education, “this training is an important milestone in the development of distance education in Seychelles.”

A group of 20 IT instructors learned how to develop lesson plans on-line, on-line courses, on-line discussions and how to make it more interactive for users.

The course followed the setting up of a web portal using Linux System in e- learning and the learning Management System (LMS) run by Adult Distance Education and Learning (Aldec).

Fiona Ernesta, Aldec’s Director said “this would also help to cut cost for university training and encourage employees to apply for a course without leaving their current posts.”

The portal will be accessed by students enrolled on distance learning courses in various institutions like the National Institute of Education (NIE), the Seychelles Institute of Management
(SIM) and the Seychelles Polytechnic.

The initiative to set up a Web Portal for distance learning is funded by the Japanese Trust Fund through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).