Thursday, October 8 2009

The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting begins in Port-of-Spain on November 27 and continues for three days.

Fifty-one heads or their representatives will assemble at The Hyatt for the talks.

Two countries have been suspended — the Fiji Islands which was suspended from membership on September 21, 2009 and Nauru, which is in arrears.

We continue today with a daily feature on the Commonwealth and will feature the Heads of these States who are expected in Port-of-Spain in November.



President James Alix Michel was born in Mahé, Seychelles, on August 16, 1944, is married, and has one son and a daughter.

He was appointed President in April 2004 and was elected to the highest office in July 2006. He had been Vice-President from August 1996 to April 2004, and was a running mate in the presidential elections of 1998 and 2001. President Michel presently has portfolio responsibilities for Foreign Affairs, Defence, Police, Information, and Risk and Disaster Management. Michel was, until he became President, the longest serving Minister in Seychelles. His first ministerial appointment was in June 1977 when he was given the responsibilities for public administration and information. In 1993 he was First Designated Minister to discharge the functions of the Office of the President during the absence of the Head of State. He also held the portfolios for Education, Finance, Communications and Defence. One of his greatest achievements as a Minister was the democratisation of the islands’ education system in the early 1980s. Today all Seychellois children have access to a minimum 13 years of non-fee paying education and equal opportunities to learning. He promoted the development of a modern telecommunications system in the Seychelles, which comprise 115 small islands whose people are called Seychellois. As a former Minister for Finance and now the President, Michel has been introducing a series of economic reforms to attract investment and boost the private sector’s role in the development of Seychelles. In March 2007 he launched the Seychelles Strategy 2017 which is a development programme to double the islands’ GDP from $8,000 (US) to $16,000 in ten years. From 1974 to 1977, Michel was a member of the Executive Committee of the Seychelles People’s United Party (SPUP), the predecessor of the ruling Seychelles People’s Progressive Front (SPPF). In 1978 he became a member of the Central Executive Committee of the newly formed SPPF. He became deputy secretary general of the SPPF in 1984 and secretary-general in 1994, a party post which he occupied until June 2009. On June 2, SPPF was rebranded as Parti Lepep (People’s Party) and Michel was elected President of Parti Lepep, a post which he still holds today.

Michel completed his secondary education in Victoria in 1959 and attended the teacher training college from 1960 to 1961. He taught for two years before joining the telecommunications company Cable & Wireless, the trade union movement and the hotel industry.



The Seychelles consist of an archipelago of over 100 islands in the Indian Ocean northeast of Madagascar. The capital is Victoria and principal islands are Mahé (55 sq mi; 142 sq km), Praslin (15 sq mi; 38 sq km), and La Digue (4 sq mi; 10 sq km). The Aldabra, Farquhar, and Desroches groups are included in the territory of the republic. The total population is about 87,476.

The government is a socialist multiparty republic, which gained Independence in 1976.

The Seychelles were uninhabited when the British East India Company arrived on the archipelago in 1609. Thereafter, they became a favourite pirate haven. The French claimed the islands in 1756 and administered them as part of the colony of Mauritius. The British gained control of the islands through the Treaty of Paris (1814) and changed the islands’ name from the French Séchelles to the Anglicised Seychelles.

The islands became self-governing in 1975 and independent on June 29, 1976. They have remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Their first president, James Mancham, was overthrown in 1977 by the prime minister, France-Albert René. At first René created a Socialist state with a one-party system, but later he reintroduced a multiparty system as well as various reforms.

To increase revenue, in 1996 the government quietly initiated an Economic Citizenship Programme that provides foreigners with the opportunity to obtain a Seychelles passport upon payment of $25,000. A new law in late 1995 had granted immunity from criminal prosecution to anyone investing $10 million in the country.

In April 2004, President France-Albert René stepped down after 27 years in power. His vice president, James Michel, who had also served in the government for 27 years, assumed the presidency. In July 2006, Michel won reelection with 53.7% of the vote.

The largest ethnic groups are those of French, African, Indian and Chinese descent. French and English are official languages along with Seychellois Creole which is primarily based on French.

The natural resources of the islands are fish, copra, cinnamon, salt, coconuts and iron.