Scroll Top

Silver Award for Seychelles in Yeosu

Expo 2012 Yeosu

Seychelles has won the Silver Award for Creative Display in the joint pavilion’s category in the just concluded Expo 2012 held in the City of Yeosu, Korea. The much-coveted awards endorsed by the Bureau International des Expositions-BIE  were announced on the eve of the closing ceremony of Yeosu International Expo. Nature Seychelles contributed to the Seychelles pavilion.

Ambassador Le Gall, also commissioner for Seychelles, received the trophy from Mr Soon-Kee Park, a top executive in Yeosu’s Organizing committee. Mr. Le Gall said it is a rare distinction for a small island country such as Seychelles to have been selected by the 9-member Jury of the BIE, one of the oldest international organizations with 161 member states. It reflects Seychelles’ total commitment to the Ocean-focused cause advocated by Yeosu expo, which is in full harmony with the blue economy concept Seychelles’ Government is using pro-actively in its development policy, in partnership with the Indian Ocean Commission and a number of NGOs, in particular Nature Seychelles.

Mr. Le Gall added that the presence of President James Michel – who was accompanied by Minister Rolph Payet – at the opening ceremony on May 12 and the participation of Minister Jean-Paul Adam in Seychelles’ Special Day on June 18, have given Seychelles a lot of visibility during the 3-month long exhibition, during which an average of 15.000 people visited Seychelles pavilion every day, and up to 20.000 during the last 3 weeks.

Finally, Seychelles’ envoy said that the Country’s successful participation in both Shanghai 2010 and Yeosu 2012 complements the increasing diplomatic role Seychelles is playing on the international scene and adds to its eligibility to be given new responsibilities, especially at UN level.

Stating that it is more than 2 years of hard work that has been rewarded ( Seychelles was also an elected member of Yeosu’s expo steering committee) Mr. Le Gall expressed his deep appreciation to former SG of IOC, Ambassador Callixte d’Offay, to CEO of STB, Mrs Elsa Grandcourt, to CEO of Nature Seychelles, Dr. Nirmal Jivan Shah and to Seychelles Honorary Consul General in Korea, Mr. Dong Chang Jeong, for their support.

Special thanks were addressed by Mr. Le Gall to the pavilion director, Mr. Li Huanhuan for his remarkable dedication to the promotion of Seychelles in Yeosu since April and to the two Seychellois pavilion assistants, Jean-Luc Lai Lam and Mavreen Pouponneau who spent several weeks on the expo site.

It is to be noted that International Expos and World Expos are at par with the Olympics and FIFA World Cup as the most important global events.