France blacklisted Seychelles recently for its handling of the offshore sector. But as the world was digesting the implications of the announcement more anomalies are surfacing out of Europe.
At the moment there is a unique situation in Seychelles when the government, on one hand, claims that Seychelles is part of International Global community and that it is a very good country for foreign investment, but on the other hand, the government has deprived foreign investors of all legal protection.
However, Seychelles has taken steps to rectify this issue:
On 27th November 2019, the Executive branch made a decision during a Cabinet Meeting for Seychelles to accede to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958.
This followed shortly by the island’s National Assembly ratifying this decision on 10th December 2019.
However, this is where it stops.
After National Assembly and Cabinet expressed their willingness to protect and attract investment into Seychelles, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has to sign the instrument of accession and instruct its ambassador in UN to deposit the said instrument, blatantly disregards all efforts by the Country by simply sitting on this decision for over a month.
The international community is today questioning the delay that is aggravating the loss of respect for Seychelles by the business community with interests in the islands.
Europe cannot stand still and watch such a situation and the recent decision by France rattled many important individuals in Seychelles. Court cases in the islands have been lost because of the 1958 New York Convention not being ratified.
“Seychelles should be a winner when it moves to respect norms and fairness a France based lawyer said.”,
