Seychelles to Co-Host Blue Economy Summit in UAE

Seychelles will co-host the second summit on the 'Blue Economy' taking place in Abu Dhabi next week.

Newly re-elected president of Seychelles James Michel will co-chair the summit and is to deliver the keynote address, a Tuesday statement from State House said.

The theme of this year's summit is "One Ocean, One Future." Seychelles and the United Arab Emirates also co-hosted the first Blue Economy summit in 2014.

By co-hosting this important event, Seychelles reaffirms the importance of the Blue Economy as a key element in its long-term development vision and foreign policy, the State House statement said.

Backers of the Blue Economy approach support Sustainable Development Goal 14 from the recent Paris Climate Change Agreement. Goal 14 is to "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development."

The Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean with an exclusive economic zone covering 1.3 million square kilometres. The island nation's economy depends heavily on tourism and fishing, two industries reliant on the Seychelles' abundant ocean resources.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201601131064.html