SEYCHELLES REALITY

Xu Weiping likes to discuss his grand vision for future real estate projects, which include a plan to rejuvenate London’s long-abandoned Royal Albert Docks . Despite the fact he has never attempted to build anything outside the Chinese mainland, and only has one completed development to his name, Mr Xu describes the £1bn docks project as “a small deal” “I spent three years negotiating with London and only came up with one project, and it’s a small project at that,” Mr Xu said on Thursday. “In China I only need six months to strike a very big deal.” His company, Advance Business Park, is building or plans to build three other massive office parks around China, in addition to the sprawling collection of about 400 low-rises in Beijing’s cheapest and least desirable district . Mr Xu has been a citizen of the Seychelles since 1996 and is driven around in a Cadillac Escalade with diplomatic number plates registered to the Embassy of the Seychelles, thanks to his role ...

ICIJ’s “ Offshore Leaks ” investigation has created a “crisis of confidence” for tax havens, damaging the offshore industry’s bottom line and its prospects for growth, a new report by a leading offshore services firm says. “The damage caused by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists getting its hands on a cache of 2.5 million records detailing the offshore assets of people should not be underestimated,” Hong Kong-based Offshore Incorporations Limited says. “The scandal has created a crisis of confidence in the industry.” Most of the accountants and other offshore professionals that the company, known by the acronym OIL, surveyed for its report said that ICIJ’s stories have reduced demand for offshore financial vehicles or prompted clients to move their business from one haven to another. It has been a tough year for offshore havens thanks to ICIJ’s revelations and efforts by the G20 club of rich nations and other international bodies to crack down on...

The bad decisions of PL led by James Michel, brought on the dubious title of "Most Indebted Country in The World", and further bankrupted Seychelles in 2007. We have been paying the price for PL James Michel failures ever since and will be paying into the future, long after James Michel and Albert Rene are gone. Now, a second wave of financial tsunami is gathering to break on the Seychelles shores. The Seychellis who survived the 2007 Michel Tsunami must be prepared for the second wave. Here is the evidence of the Financial-Tsunami build up. The Dismal 2% GDP Year on Year Year on year, the PL cannot seem to do better than 2% GDP. This is in spite of increases on Tourism visitor arrivals. More Tourist arrive officially, but they spend less nights, and less money in Seychelles. Without growth at 6%-8%, according to IMF, we cannot repay our debts and maintain a reserve of Three (3) months imports, $400 million. Middle East Hub System Has Spoke Us Out of Top Players J...

Nov 25, 2013 Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has appointed Ahmed Ershood Al Shehhi as its new General Manager in the Republic of the Seychelles. Ahmed Al Shehh replaces Rashed Saif Al Shabi who has taken up the role of General Manager in Cyprus. His key responsibilities will include driving commercial results and further enhancing the strong relationships with the airline’s travel trade and corporate customers in Mahé. He will also work closely with international tourism partners in developing the leisure and business passenger traffic between the Seychelles and key destinations across Etihad Airways’ fast growing global network, in the Far East, Asia, Australia, America and Europe. As part of Etihad Airways’ alliance with Air Seychelles, Ahmed will also support Air Seychelles’ service between Mahé and Abu Dhabi, ensuring that passengers travelling with either airline are provided with a seamless travel experience. Ahmed Al Shehhi...

Victoria, Seychelles: The Indian Ocean archipelago of the Seychelles is pinning its hopes of economic recovery on its expected membership of the World Trade Organisation, but the impending move is also causing jitters for local businesses. After 18 years of negotiations, the tourist destination — famed for its white sandy beaches and luxury hotels - is set to join the global trade body by the end of April 2014, said Cillia Mangroo, head of the finance ministry’s trade division. For the authorities of the island nation, membership equals commercial security. “Being a member of the WTO, for a small country like Seychelles, provides the opportunity to have a body that can defend their rights in case of a trade dispute with another country,” said Charles Morin, the islands’ chief negotiator. Aside from pulling in tourists and honeymooners, the main export is canned tuna to the...

Les avocats d’affaires suisses ont l’habitude des transactions discrètes mais celle-ci, aucun doute, devait sortir de l’ordinaire. En ce jour de l’hiver 1998, René Merkt se présenta à la porte de l’hôtel particulier de Liliane Bettencourt, à Neuilly, où il fut aussitôt introduit par un maître d’hôtel. Il arrivait spécialement de Genève, convoqué en urgence pour un rendez-vous « particulièrement confidentiel ». Là, une fois conduit dans un salon auprès de la milliardaire et de son mari, André, il fut frappé de voir celui-ci, d’ordinaire si posé, abréger les politesses d’usage et lui lancer, enthousiaste : « Maître, nous allons faire une folie ! » L’opération exigerait promptitude et ingéniosité mais le projet tenait en quelques mots : « Mon épouse et moi allons acheter une île. » Des années plus tard, quand la justice fouillera un à un les tiroirs renfermant les secrets de famille des Bettencourt, l’avocat se souviendra que l’ancien ministre, surexcité, lui avait présenté ...

Ahmed Afif Didi, the former Principal Secretary of Finance, and the man, that led Seychelles through the dark days of national bankruptcy, much like Churchill led England in the darkest, hollow moments of Blitz Krieg over London is back in form and made numerous announcements this week on the new airline Seychelles Airlines. Mr Afif, fired from his post, because he raised numerous issues of malpractice in the Air Seychelles operation, has been chosen by INTERSHORE Airlines to run the new private venture, which was announced by Mr Louis D'offay on the occasion of his 15 anniversary as SHTA Chairman, the day, he resigned from his post as head of Tourism Trade. Intershore Airlines was presented to the Public as a concept, to the dismay of Mr Steve Fanny Principal Secretary of Finance, recently, booted from the Ministry of Finance. An Arena of Government People In attendance this week was an arena of government ministers, Principal Secretary (s), Directors, and anyone in the Mic...

Seychelles has been listed alongside well-known tax havens in a new OECD ranking, showing the country still has work to do on banking secrecy despite recent steps aimed at tackling the issue. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes is due to officially release ratings for 50 jurisdictions at a meeting in the Indonesian capital on Friday. The forum has rated jurisdictions on how well they comply with rules on tax transparency. It came after Seychelles took steps to tackle its long-criticised banking secrecy, including signing an international tax evasion agreement, brokered by the OECD, and introducing new legislation to increase cooperation on money-laundering. Of the jurisdictions that completed the two-stage assessment, 18 were deemed to be "compliant" with the tax transparency rules set out by the forum; many others were considered "largely complia...

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 11:25 AM Radovan Krejcir Article By: Mandy Wiener, EWN Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir has denied reports that he has ordered six overseas hits since arriving in South Africa six years ago. The Sunday Times yesterday reported that a hit man, who claims he was hired by Krejcir, has signed a statement containing these allegations which is in the possession of the Hawks. The list of targets includes people in Germany, the Czech Republic and the Seychelles. The gunman apparently claims he was hired to kill an old enemy of Krejcir's in Prague, but his plans were thwarted by US President Barack Obama's visit to the city. But Krejcir says he doesn't know who the hitman is and believes private investigator Paul O'Sullivan is behind the claims. "Who are these people? Have any of them been hurt or killed and I would also like to know who the hitman is. I wouldn't be surprised if O'Sullivan arranged the ...

Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Republic of the Seychelles, has appointed Ms Tara Murphy as its new Chief Financial Officer. Tara, who is currently Etihad Airways’ Manager Financial Control, takes up the role on secondment from the Abu Dhabi-based national carrier. Air Seychelles Chief Executive Officer Cramer Ball welcomed Tara to the Air Seychelles executive team. “Tara’s experience in financial planning and management will be a great asset to Air Seychelles as it enters the next phase of its development. “She brings valuable insight from managing cost control projects with fellow equity partner, airberlin, that will be hugely beneficial to our business.” Tara said she was excited to take on the new role and to relocate to the Seychelles. “I look forward to joining the Air Seychelles senior executive team and to contributing to the airline’s continuing success.” Tara is a graduate of Dublin City University with degrees in accounting and finance....

Recently, the Citizenship Bill was discussed in the National Assembly without ever being Gazetted. Odd enough. Minister Joel Morgan was on SBC in Extra, Extra, to reveal to the Public what his intentions are behind the Bill which falls under the purview of his ministry. A MSR-SFP Partial Victory Clearly, the PL have succumb to the pressures of the MSR and SFP who have single handedly exposed the bogus practice of: 1. Selling passports, 2. Allowing GOP workers to become Citizens, 3. Not making it easier for a person married Bona Fide to a Seychellois(e) to become a citizen, 4. Not provinding for a permanent resident status for non citizens. All these points, MSR and SFP have fought hard to expose the PL and the weakness in the process of attaining citizenship in Seychelles. The outcome has been, that after years of abuse of the system, the use of a Seychelles Passport when travelling has become a dubious venture. At home we have witnessed the outright selling of our identi...