Seychelles President Denny Faure announced yesterday a Cabinet reshuffle in the Indian Ocean Republic involving a reduction in the size of the Cabinet which now has ten ministers in addition to the President and the Vice President.

President Denny Faure will retain all his portfolios which include the Department of Defence, Legal Affairs, and Public Administration.

The Vice President will also retain his portfolios which include the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Information Communication Technology, Information and The Blue Economy. In addition, the Vice President will now also hold the portfolio of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development.

Minister Wallace Cosgrow will be the new Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change.

The new Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marines is Mr. Didier Dogley, replacing Maurice Loustau-Lalanne.

Didier Dogley was born in 1964 and was educated in Seychelles. He successfully completed his studies at the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt, in Germany and Reading University, United Kingdom. Later he obtained a Diploma in Management at the Seychelles Institute of Management, now University of Seychelles.

Since 1989 he has been working in the Ministry of Environment. He has held and served in several key posts including Director General for Nature Conservation and Principal Secretary of Environment.  Didier was chairperson of the National Planning Authority, Waste and Landscape management Agency and the National Parks Committee.  Furthermore he served on several boards of national importance such as the Seychelles Tourism Board, the Island Development Company.

He was the Founding Chairman of the Non-government Organisation called Plant Conservation Action Group; a botanical association, which seeks to promote the conservation and protection of the endemic and indigenous flora of Seychelles.

He played an instrumental role in implementing the Seychelles debt swap for conservation and climate adaptation and the Seychelles Marine Spatial Plan.

On the international arena he has represented Seychelles in many sustainable development, biodiversity and land degradation related negotiations and fora in particular the UNCBD, UNCCD and RIO+ 20.  He chaired the Nairobi Convention COP 8 meeting.