H.E. RAJESHWAR JEETAH- MINISTER INDUSTRY

Everyone is talking about the steps government is taking to ease investment here in Mauritius. Are there business opportunities readily available here in Mauritius? Are you ready for investors?

Absolutely. We are working on making Mauritius the most investment friendly atmosphere we can. Before, as a foreigner you could not even register a business here. With the advances we have made, Mauritius is opening its doors to those ready to invest. You can come here with for example, your small to medium enterprise and within one day be active. Of course there are certain criteria to be met, but you can register your company and can start business the next day. There is much less red tape than before. The proof of our functionality is that in the last four to five years we had about 450 businesses registering. In this year since July alone we’ve had over 4000.

Taking into effect the sector drawbacks incurred in these past few years, mainly in textiles, has industry gotten back on its feet? Where do you stand in terms of recuperation?

With our entering into the World Trade Organization we lost thirty thousand employees in the textile sector between 2000 and 2005. This affected the sector’s independence. People, globally speaking, were not in the market for middle to upper end quality products. Lower quality items coming from other countries meant lower prices and we could not compete. So now the government is taking care of this sector by facilitating investment. We take care of facilitating your business endeavors. You take care of making business. We have got an excellent ratio of quality to price and delivery. We work within international standards of social compliance and we offer a complete package, from start to finish: from string, to cloth, to design, to manufacturing. And we understand that our client wants quality.

Textile and clothes are moving in a very good direction. We’ve had a total 12.5% growth rate, 1.5% this year alone, with 150 million pieces of goods manufactured in 2006. Within two years we will be self sufficient in yarn, producing 55 million tons. Textile and clothes are still our biggest industries.

What are the industrial sector’s other heavy hitters?

Fish is the second most important area in industry. We ship 100 thousand tons of tinned Tuna every year, 20% of the Indian Ocean’s stock. We have got an EEZ (exclusive economic zone) of 1.9 million square km. India has got 2.1, just to see the comparison with such a large country. Then through fish farming we distribute 500 to 600 tons per year and want to raise that number to 50 thousand tons in industrial canning. Mauritius has got tremendous potential.

Apart from that we’ve got our “Land Based Oceanic Industries” which are quite rich and diverse. We are beginning a ‘deep water’ extraction and desalination process from a current that runs under Mauritius, which is very rich in minerals and very pure. We are as well working in the diamond industry. Diamond carving is yet another opportunity to create a job market for the people who lost their work during the textile lapse. We are also producing 30 million liters of ethanol which now, through the Ministry of Commerce, can be used at a 10% rate in our low grade gasoline, and we have got two manufacturers of bio diesel now as well.

Eventually we will move into light engineering, electronics, clinical research outsourcing, Marine development… We are going to push these new sectors with the help of Enterprise Mauritius. We also want to develop the ‘souvenirs’ sector- Artisanal crafts for people to bring home from their stay in Mauritius. These are the ways in which we can continue to expand in investment and employment opportunities.

What would be your final message to people interested in coming to Mauritius to invest?

Mauritius is a serious country. We mean business, and we are opening up to the world with a plethora of opportunities and interesting sectors.

This is a country that works. Our laws are made to accelerate and facilitate business and we aim to become one of the top ten business friendly countries in the world, and to have our GDP in the Industrial Sector become highest in world.

Can we arrive at this point? Yes. Everything is moving in the right direction and the country is stable. Economic growth has been steady at 5.6% these past few years. The government may change, but the country stays reliable, we are a true democracy. This country works.