Comprised of an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles is an island nation some 1,500 kilometres east of the African continent. Obtaining independence from the UK in 1976, the Seychelles toady is a Commonwealth Republic. After an extended period of time as a one party socialist state, the Seychelles has emerged to become a vibrant parliamentary democracy with an eye towards future prosperity and development.

The island nation is currently undergoing something of a growth period with booming tourism and real estate markets. The government of the Seychelles have renewed their commitment to develop the country's financial services sector, believing it could overtake tourism to become the most important sector of the economy by 2017.

The Seychelles are located in a time zone whose working hours overlap with those of major trading hubs of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. It also has a developed infrastructure with superb air and sea connections to Europe, the USA, Asia and Africa. All these factors combined with the attractive investment incentives make for an excellent and highly receptive business environment for the international entrepreneur.

Established by the Seychelles International Business Companies Act of 1994, Seychelles IBCs are a popular and versatile choice for offshore companies offering all the tax-free and confidentiality benefits of offshore IBCs. Modelled after offshore corporation legislation of the British Virgin Islands, the Seychelles IBC exceeds its BVI IBC counterparts in many respects. Over 30,000 Seychelles IBC`s have been registered since 1994, with more than 600 new offshore entities being registered every month.

The government of the Seychelles actively encourages the development of offshore business and investment in the island, and to that end has created an industrial Free Trade Zone in the Island of Mahe. Businesses operating in the Free Trade Zone receive generous custom duty exemptions from Social Security Contributions and extra concessions in the form of work permits for foreign labour.