The Seychelles Investment Board (SIB) has announced the relaunching of tender submissions for the Victoria Waterfront project for Zone B and Zone D for applicants who had previously applied only and documents have to be submitted by 10 a.m. on August 26.

The SIB chief executive, Anne Rosette, made this announcement in a press conference on Tuesday and confirmed that submissions for bids for the tender process will from now on have to be submitted by the applicant or by proxy in person at the National Tender Board.

"Now we have only one way for submissions to be made. The applicant has to come in person, and if they are unable to do so, they may appoint a proxy or representative. However, they must provide a letter in advance, confirming that this person is representing them. This is so that there is no confusion going forward," she explained.

The relaunch for Zone B is due to objections put forward through the appeal process during the initial bidding process. Out of the four appeals, two appeals stated that there were issues with the way submissions for bidding were done. At the time, submissions could be done in two ways; by email or physically through the National Tender Board (NTB). However, the Investment Appeal Panel concluded that this process was done in a way that was not in the interest of the bidders and that it could cause confusion.

Aimed at making Victoria, the capital, livelier, the Waterfront Development project is part of the approved Victoria Masterplan 2040 and will be carried out in the area most people know as the ex-Children's Playground. Zone B comprises three plots of land to be developed for activities and entertainment and four applicants appealed the selection.

Regarding Zone D, Rosette confirmed that due to delays, too much time had passed for the bidding process for this zone so SIB had to relaunch it as well. Zone D is one plot of about 17 thousand square metres dedicated to the waterfront part of the project and it includes major reclamation.

"According to the procedure, a bid can remain open only for a certain time. And because of the delays with having to go through the appeals and re-launching the tender process for Zone B, too much time had passed for Zone D. Therefore, we had to close it and relaunch it as well," she explained.

Rosette confirmed there will be a review for Zone A and Zone E, to see if they will be tendered out again. These are two other zones in the waterfront project that had not received any qualifying bids during the first tender process.

"We want to complete the tender process for the whole project by the end of the year. We want to clarify though, following all these procedures the applicants that will be chosen for the projects will also be advised by a technical committee that will work with them in order to ensure that this project goes well," she said.