President Dr. Patrick Herminie and COMESA Secretary General Mrs Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe today reaffirmed the strength of the partnership between Seychelles and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, as the Secretary General's official visit delivered the launch of a new regional programme for women and youth entrepreneurs.
In a courtesy call at State House, the two leaders took stock of the breadth of collaboration between Seychelles and the regional bloc, from trade and connectivity to gender equality and youth empowerment.
The President used the meeting to brief the Secretary General on a range of projects and programmes undertaken in Seychelles with COMESA's support. He thanked COMESA for funding, through the Regional Enterprise Competitiveness and Access to Markets Programme (RECAMP), the capacity-building training and industrial equipment that have strengthened the Seychelles Chapter of the COMESA Federation of Women in Business (COMFWB) and proudly cited the representation of women and youth in his own Cabinet, the National Assembly and Government as evidence of the priority his administration places on the issue.
Turning to trade, the President informed the Secretary General that Seychelles officially launched its Electronic Certificate of Origin (eCO) system on 17th June, becoming the sixth COMESA Member State to do so, a development he linked to the Revenue Commission's wider digitisation drive and to national efforts to ease the conduct of business.
He further renewed his call for the full operationalisation of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, urging COMESA to champion the priorities of Small Island Developing States within the bloc.
The President also thanked COMESA for the joint AU-COMESA Election Observation Mission deployed during Seychelles' General Elections last year, and for funding the participation of two Seychellois Electoral Commissioners in a capacity-building workshop in Kenya.
He raised fisheries as an area for closer technical cooperation, and acknowledged recent COMESA donations to Seychelles, including a desktop computer for the National Bureau of Statistics and metrology equipment for the Bureau of Standards.
In response, the Secretary General thanked President Herminie for the opportunity to meet and for Seychelles' hospitality during her visit, and congratulated him on his election.
Mrs Kapwepwe gave the President a general overview of Seychelles' standing within COMESA, describing the country's commitment to the bloc as evident in its active participation in, and support for, COMESA's work on regional integration and gender equality.
She then set out the purpose of her mission to Seychelles and the initiatives it would deliver, informing the President of a new COMESA-backed training programme for young people that has already proven successful in other Member States and which Seychelles would now host. Delivered through the COMFWB incubation and innovation hub, she said the initiative would equip start-ups and small businesses with business management, training and capacity-building skills, with particular attention to preserving traditional production skills while creating employment for young people, in coordination with Government ministries and the private sector. The programme, she added, was designed to increase the economic participation of women and youth, in line with Seychelles' support for the wider COMESA agenda.
Mrs Kapwepwe went on to brief the President on the COMESA Medium-Term Strategic Plan 2026-2030, due to be formally launched at the COMESA Summit in Harare this October, outlining its priority areas for island states, connectivity, the Regional Shipping Line, maritime security, the Blue Economy and climate change, the last of which she said had gained growing prominence on the regional agenda.
On the Regional Shipping Line, President Herminie said the initiative had become paramount in light of instability in the Middle East, reiterating COMESA's important role in helping facilitate trade across the region.
Also present at the meeting were the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Mr Barry Faure; the Minister for Industry and Enterprise, Ms Geralda Desaubin, and the Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Ambassador Ian Madeleine.
Closing the meeting, President Herminie thanked the Secretary General for her visit and wished her every success with the remainder of her programme in Seychelles, while Mrs Kapwepwe expressed confidence that the partnership would continue to deliver tangible benefits for the Seychellois people and for the wider region.