Seychelles Speaker calls for closer ties

The speaker of the Seychelles Parliament, Dr Patrick Herminie, has hinted on the possibility of his country entering into joint ventures with Rwanda to explore ways of generating more revenues in the tourism and agriculture sectors.  

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The speaker of the Seychelles Parliament, Dr Patrick Herminie, has hinted on the possibility of his country entering into joint ventures with Rwanda to explore ways of generating more revenues in the tourism and agriculture sectors.  

Herminie, who is in Rwanda for a five-day visit, was speaking after meeting with the Senate President, Dr Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Donatille Mukabalisa, on Wednesday.

 "The purpose if my visit is to foster the existing bilateral cooperation between Rwanda and Seychelles and learning from Rwanda especially since the country has the highest number of women parliamentarians around the world. The way Rwanda came to achieve that and how it integrated the population after the Genocide against the Tutsi makes it a model state in Africa,” Herminie said.

He added: "Seychelles is a tourist destination and there are many tourists coming to Rwanda so we may look at what we can do together to promote the two destinations.”

Ntawukuriryayo said there are other areas besides agriculture and tourism that can benefit the two countries.

"We could as well explore trade opportunities between the two countries and look at the possibility of RwandAir flying to Seychelles to ease those operations,” he said.

Herminie is today expected to be in Ngoma District where he will tour Pineapple plantations.