Successful Offshore Business Conference
October, 2000

The Seychelles International Business Authority (SIBA) organised their first offshore conference on the island of Praslin from 18-20 September with the theme: "Future of Offshore Centres in the Cyber Age". Hailed as a total success by over 100 delegates from 27 countries and the Seychelles' business community, the conference covered a wide range of topics and gave participants the opportunity of exploring avenues for greater understanding between smaller specialised financial centres and their markets. Speakers focused on the growing influence of e-commerce, but the combined effects of modern technology and the new regulatory environment brought about by numerous initiatives from the OECD, FATF, FSF and IMF were comprehensively discussed as well.

In his keynote address, the acting President, Vice-President James Michel, stressed that his Government was committed to Seychelles's continued development as an international centre and that it would keep on introducing the necessary legislation and develop related physical structures and service structures in telecommunication. He added that the liberalisation policies and private sector-led investments in information technology had boosted Seychelles' accessibility to the Internet. Mr Michel commented that the offshore industry had to continually adapt to the rapid pace of technological evolution and that the development of physical infrastructure would remain an important objective towards making Seychelles an important trading and distribution centre. He also noted that Seychelles encouraged international trade by promoting the jurisdiction and that they had been proactive in pursuing several double taxation treaties to facilitate investment flows through Seychelles. Mr. Michel also commented that the recent pronouncements by the OECD and other international bodies had clouded the integrity of offshore financial centres. " My Government has argued the case for Seychelles and made the commitments necessary to remove these damaging preconceptions", he said. He noted that work had been done with the IMF's review on offshore financial centres and the U.N's convention on organised crime, and all indicated that Seychelles' attraction as an offshore centre would continue to flourish