The Seychelles government says plan to build a fibre-optic link across the Indian Ocean, will depend entirely on the private sector.
Answering a question I put to the Minister for National Development in the National Assembly, on how far his ministry had arrived in the project to install an underwater cable to connect Seychelles with the rest of the world, Mr Jacquelin Dugasse says the government is seriously considering two options.
The first option is to connect with the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION) at a cost of $30 million and the second is to connect with the ESSAy project from Dar-es-Salaam at the cost of $50-60 million.
As for the financing option, the minister says the cost would have to be met by the private sector. Already a local cable company has been formed to raise funds for the project.
A feasibility study costing $500 thousand, with the African Development Bank footing the lion share is being carried out to decide which of the two options is best for Seychelles.
Although I support this project and appreciate the fact that Seychelles will eventually be well connected to economic hot spots in the Middle East as well as South Africa, India and Europe, I see the danger of the few telecommunication companies we have here monopolising its benefits - which keeps prices high and so out of reach of many.
Currently, Seychelles relies solely on satellite connections for internet and telephone calls.
Whilst Africa has ten cables, Seychelles failed to embrace the technology when it was first introduced in the region several years ago, when it would have cost us merely $3 million.
But the most important question of all - when is expected to be ready? Minister Dugasse simply refused to be taken to task later by the Assembly's Government Assurances Committee.
