China has agreed to let Seychelles pay the R321 million debt in 20 years, with a grace period of 10 years. This was announced by the Vice-President and the Minister for Finance and Trade Danny Faure on his return from China.
In China, Mr Faure led negotiations aimed to seek a rescheduling of the debts of Seychelles. During his visit to China, Faure was accompanied by his technical adviser Bertrand Belle and the director for public debt in the Ministry of Finance Brian Charlette.
Faure said that during the 10 years’ grace period Seychelles will need to pay 2% interest, which is about R500 000 a month (R6 million a year). He commented: “Within the next 24 months, the government will receive an injection of USD 3 million budget support from China as part of a package that is comparable to the treatment we have received as part of our negotiations with commercial banks, bond holders and countries belonging to the Paris Club group”.
On April 18, the agreements for the restructuring were signed in Beijing.
Faure said: “Even though China is the 2nd largest economy in the world, it remains a developing country and it has a principle to help other people in the world, and this is how we as a small nation are getting the money to invest in social infrastructure which help our country’s development from China”.
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