Mr. Vikramdityasing Bissoonauthsing (a.k.a.Krish) , of Mauritian nationality, is a highly experienced international consultant in the area of European Union (EU) – Africa Caribbean Pacific (ACP) cooperation. He is originally a computer scientist then trained as a Development Economist, with further specialisations in Global Diplomacy, Financial Markets, Infrastructure Finance, Project Management, Project Design, Monitoring and Evaluation, and EU Public Procurement. He is fully bilingual ( English-French).
As of November 2024 he is currently a successful investor and business developer in the oil and commodities haulage business in Southern Africa with base of operations in landlocked Botswana. And in parallel he is the promoter and licence (in progress) holder for a Securities Trading Systems platform ( Africa Digital Exchange - AfDex) and of a Variable Captial Comapny (VCC) namely Titan Africa Capital Partners.
Krish cumulates more than 35 years of “eurocrat” development aid delivery and diplomacy experience. These were acquired firstly from his 20-years (1989 – 2008) career as staff of the European Commission (Delegation for/to the Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros, Indian Ocean Commission). Since 2008 he has been performing as Team Leader for several EU-funded assignments, both long-term and short-term, spanning across the African regional organisations such as COMESA, EAC, IGAD, also in countries such as Botswana, eSwatini, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, and held posting as expert (EU-funded) at the ACP Secretariat in Brussels in capacity as Head of Development Finance in 2019-2020. In the latter position he substantially participated in crafting one of Team Europe’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in support of the ACP countries, while also investing most of his time in the joint authoring and review of the new EU – ACP Post-Cotonou (2021 – 2040) Agreement.
A landmark chapter of his career was the period 2008 – 2014 when he was the Coordinator/Team Leader for implementing the EU support to the Inter-Regional Coordinating Committee (IRCC), hosted by COMESA in Lusaka, Zambia, and regrouping COMESA, EAC, IGAD, IOC, SADC, all together handling nearly EUR 1 billion under the 9th and 10th European Development Funds and which the IRCC successfully transcribed into projects effectively supporting regional integration and setting the base for the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite as a building block of the African Continental Free Trade Area. He also led during that time the inclusion of the regional organisations in the global aid effectiveness debate under the joint UN/OECD initiative culminating in the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. As of date, Krish is still the Coordinator for a specific platform proposed under the GPEDC, namely the P.R.I.D.E (Platform for Regional Integration Development Effectiveness) co-hosted by IGAD and Mauritius.
His work at the IRCC also led him to be Board Director of the Regional Multi-disciplinary Centre of Excellence (RMCE) based in Mauritius and to also participate, through co-funding made available under the IRCC, in the setting up of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Afritac in Mauritius.
During his twenty-year (1989 – 2008) career as EU staff, he was EU Country Officer and EU Trade Officer (2002 – 2008) across several portfolios (Mauritius, Seychelles, Regional Indian Ocean) for the joint design and implementation of EU country strategies, besides being entrusted for the EU Delegation’s institutional reporting and its compliance to EU internal control standards. He substantially contributed to the appraisal of the Sugar Accompanying measures for Mauritius as well as technically leading the programming of the 9th and 10th EDF for Mauritius with counterparts at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development in Mauritius.
As a recognition of his key role in articulating EU development funding in support of regional integration in Africa, Krish was invited by the OECD, Paris, in October 2015,to be part of the expert group of the editorial team for the yearly publication of Africa Economic Outlook (2016), jointly published by the OECD, the African Development Bank, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
Krish’s recurrent thinking and passion is on identifying feasible innovative financing solutions to tackle the development and climate finance gaps, in the spirit of the outcome of the Addis Ababa 3rd Conference (2015) on Financing for Development. During his tenure at the ACP Secretariat in Brussels, he thus designed and set up the ACP Endowment and Trust Fund in Luxemburg with specific windows and mechanisms to respond to the financing gaps, in particular for finance mobilisation for large ( infrastructure) projects. .
As of second semester 2023 Krish is part of a senior experts team for a project formulation assignment for the implementation of the EU-Canada Strategy on Critical Raw Materials. He has also developed, with the Open University of Mauritius, a Certificate in Development Finance to be offered across the ACP countries (79 countries) and which will encompass solid training in the new EU aid delivery model and the Team Europe approach for 2021 – 2027. He is also heavily involved in leading two stand-alone innovative financing platforms for development finance and climate finance respectively leveraging modern financial instruments and fintech.
Last but not least Krish also cumulates functions as the Honorary Consul of Estonia in the Republic of Mauritius, a position which he leverages well to promote e-Governance and whole-of-Government digitalisation for better service to the population based on the successful Estonia showcase.
Date : 28 November 2024