President James Michel officially opened and unveiled the plaque for the new Independence House Annex in Victoria, this morning.
The ceremony was attended by Vice-President Danny Faure and other dignitaries as part of the 40th Independence Day celebrations.
“It is indeed an iconic landmark. The Independent House Annex stands as a powerful symbol of what the New Seychelles is about. Its name and the date of its inauguration remind us of where we have come from and what we have achieved. As we go upwards aiming for the sky it is also a powerful sign of where we are going as a nation,” said Minister Michael Benstrong, the Minister for Investment, Entrepreneurship Development & Business Innovation in his launching address.
The Minister said that the building is expected to establish new bench-marks of public sector functional efficiency as it provides a significant segment of the public Sector workforce with an impressive new home to pursue their mandates.
“The construction of this new Independence House Annex is an admirable example of successful execution of large building projects under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model which our Government has encouraged in recent years,” he added.
Construction on Independence House Annex started in November 2014 and was undertaken by the Green Island Construction Company. The project was implemented under a Private Public Partnership (PPP) approach mechanism with Green Tree Investment. Under this PPP arrangement Government provides the land, and Green Tree Investment raised financing for the building. Government will rent the office space for the period of recovery of the investment (which is expected to be around 9 years), after which building will revert back as Government property.
The ground floor holds parking space for both buildings. There is a modern meeting/staff facility on the 6th floor level which offers breath-taking 360 degree views of the capital city of Victoria. The building represents an estimated 3600 sqm of government office space. It was designed by architect, Mr. Zoran Vuksanovic and WSP Engineering firm.
Independence House Annex was conceived so that Independence House could be a one stop hub for government services serving investors and investment. The Planning Authority, Land Registrar, Immigration Division, Lands Division were already based in the Independence House Building. The multi-storey annex block will now complete this hub with other investment related services and will house;