(Seychelles News Agency) - The President of Seychelles, Danny Faure, has called for an increase in collective action towards maritime security for stability in the region in his address at the SADC summit for heads of states and governments in Namibia, State House said on Saturday.

“It is of utmost importance that we collectively talk on the curbing of international maritime crimes. These will create a more attractive business environment, will attract investors and foreign direct investment to our region, and thereby enable us to better compete and trade between ourselves and with the rest of the world,” said Faure.

The 38th summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which ends on Saturday is taking place under the theme “Promoting Infrastructure Development and Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development”.

Faure said that the southern part of the world has a commendable collective stretch of seashore, a wide collective oceanic territory and with it, highly relevant and important exclusive economic zones.

“It is important to note that a portion of our goods and services make it through our region’s shores and oceans onwards to the rest of the world. When one reflects on this untapped set of resources, one can but wonder why we are not channelling parts of our efforts in the creation of proper infrastructures that would permit increased trade and movement of goods between us,” added Seychelles’ head of state. 

In this regard, he advocated for prioritising the SADC maritime infrastructure, the SADC maritime security and SADC blue economy.

Speaking on the theme of the summit “Promoting Infrastructure Development and Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development,” Faure stressed on the importance of education for youth empowerment and to prepare society in face of the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.

“Without education of our children and youths as a constant in our works, we will lose once more, to industrialisation. We, therefore, wish that the concept of infrastructural development also incorporates in a strong tone, the education element,” he said.

Faure added that the government of Seychelles “is of the view that we as SADC should in earnest, discuss how we can engage throughout our educational spectrum, from as early - as early childhood throughout to tertiary education, in order for us to champion the fourth industrial revolution. This can only be done through education. We wish that we can materialise such projects as the University of Transformation which will add to this endeavour.”

As a result, the SADC summit endorsed the Seychelles' President’s proposals on embracing the fourth industrial revolution and agreed to “create a digital platform for youth engagement on the relevance of our current educational systems to face the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.”

Earlier this week, the SADC Council of Ministers meeting which preceded the summit had agreed with a proposal by Seychelles to consider the readiness of member states educational systems to face the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution and to report to SADC Council in August 2019.