Seychelles President makes special visit to Colombo Dockyard

• Expresses confidence on working with Sri Lanka to meet rising needs in ship building and repairing

By Harsha Udayakantha Peiris

The President of the Republic of Seychelles James Alix Michel, currently on visit in Sri Lanka, made a special courtesy call at Colombo Dockyard PLC yesterday. The President was accompanied by Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Rajitha Senaratne.

A high-level delegation from Seychelles led by President Michel arrived in Colombo on 20 August for a three-day visit on an invitation by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The Republic of Seychelles comprises 115 islands occupying a land area of 455 km2 and an exclusive economic zone of 1.4 km2 in the Western Indian Ocean. It represents an archipelago of legendary beauty that extends from between four and 10 degrees south of the equator and which lies between 480km and 1,600km from the east coast of Africa. Of these 115 islands, 41 constitute the oldest mid-oceanic granite islands on earth while a further 74 form the low-lying coral atolls and reef islands of the Outer Islands.

According to business promotion information on Seychelles islands, with an efficient telecommunications system together with other advantages such as the extensive facilities available at its harbour – Port Victoria – and well-developed infrastructure with attractive investment incentives, Seychelles offers an ideal business environment to investors.

In order to fully capitalise on the above, the Seychelles Investment Bureau (SIB) was established in July 2004, as the first point of contact for all matters relating to investment and business in Seychelles. Its main activities include enhancing awareness about Seychelles as a location for investments both at home and abroad and to promote investment opportunities in all sectors of the economy, providing facilitation services to investors and acting as the focal point of contact amongst local and foreign entrepreneurs and all government/private organisations, expediting the processing of investment proposals in an efficient manner for the consideration of Government and conducting research and making recommendations on investment-related matters.

Information by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce states that in 2011 exports to Seychelles from Sri Lanka stood at US$ 830,000 while imports were at US$ 1.64 million. Main products exported from Sri Lanka to the islands include tea and fishing vessels. “Yet there also exists a greater export potential in gems and jewellery, furniture, boats and plastic products in the Seychelles market,” Ministry sources stated.

Expressing views over the Seychelles President’s visit to Colombo Dockyard, Managing Director Mangala Yapa stated that the visit was organised upon a special request by the Seychelles President for a visit there to gain firsthand insight into the present capabilities and capacities of the institution.

“Seychelles is looking forward with great interest to invest in Sri Lanka with scopes of better coordination to develop their maritime sector, which includes commercial and fisheries activities. The Seychelles President and the delegation in discussions with Colombo Dockyard expressed their extreme confidence and were positive of strengthening cooperation to work with us to meet their ever-increasing needs in the fields of shipbuilding and ship repairing in the Republic of Seychelles,” he said.

Making a special remark on Colombo Dockyard, Seychelles President James Alix Michel stated that the institution had great potential and opportunities for capacity building in economic and defence development in the region, which he said were great achievements.

The Seychelles delegation also made a special inspection tour at the technical work areas of Colombo Dockyard and the tour included a visit to Greatship Rupa being built at Colombo Dockyard.

The platform ROV support vessel, Greatship Rupa, being built at Colombo Dockyard, has been classed as an ‘In Water Survey’ denoting vessel that could be operated without being dry-docked for five years. The main role of this vessel is to support offshore oil and gas fields around the clock and the vessel has an endurance of 35 days and a cruising range of about 9,200 nautical miles. Designed for operation worldwide and with an outstanding speed of 13.8 knots, the vessel can get to the desired location around the world as quickly as possible, minimising downtime.

Colombo Dockyard, having already positioned itself as a dynamic and versatile shipbuilding/ship repairing facility in the Indian Ocean, pledged its fullest support to offer specialised, top-end engineering services, ranging from the construction of coast guard vessels and fast patrol boats to passenger cum cargo vessels.

Colombo Dockyard highlighted that ships carrying the adage ‘Made in Sri Lanka’ were now operating across oceans worldwide and that the company’s commitment to building ships of the highest quality, meeting international standards and with guaranteed performance at competitive prices has enabled Colombo Dockyard to spread ships made in Sri Lanka from here to the world.

The high-level Seychelles delegation at Colombo Dockyard also comprised Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Paul Adam, Minister of Natural Resources and Industry Peter Sinon, and Delhi-based High Commissioner of Seychelles to Sri Lanka Waven William. Staff members of the higher management of Colombo Dockyard and a host of other dignitaries from the Sri Lankan Ministry of External Affairs were also present.