Republic of Mauritius- 171st Annual general meeting of the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Nandcoomar Bodha, the Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Protection, Mr Yogida Sawmynaden, were present at the opening ceremony of the AGM.

Commemorative stamps were gifted to the four Ministers by the MCCI’s outgoing president, Mr Marday Venkatasamy.  Several personalities from the public and private sectors and members of the diplomatic corps and honorary consuls were also in attendance.  On that occasion, Mr Venkatasamy, delivered a speech on the State of the Economy.

In his address, Minister Padayachy, said that more than ever Government is turned towards the development of a business ecosystem in Mauritius.  The global health crisis has played the role of accelerator in the process of decision-making for these decisions to be efficient, he recalled.  Business as usual is no longer an option and Government has had to set priorities and therefore the current situation could be taken as an opportunity to accelerate the transition of the Mauritian economy, he pointed out.

According to him, if the objective remains the same, that is, to have a robust, inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development, the pathway to be adopted is quite different and Government is coping with this reality.  The vision of Government is clear and unchanged and revolves around giving Mauritius the necessary resources to bounce back and impute a new dynamic and to do so more than MUR 100 billion has been provided to the investment and economy recovery plan, he added.

Minister Bodha, for his part, spoke about the need to have the leadership from the business community as well as enhancing the synergy to work together.  He further elaborated on the state of affairs with regards to ongoing negotiations pertaining to the Free Trade Agreement with India which is expected to be concluded soon; regional cooperation and regional markets, and the Mauritius Africa Strategy, and the importance of air and maritime connectivity.

Speaking about the European Union tax haven blacklist (EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions), the Minister reassured that Government is working arduously to take Mauritius out of that list at the earliest.  At present, he indicated, a Mauritian technical team has been mandated to interface via visio-conference with a technical team from the Elysée Palace, France, at the request of the French President, Mr Emmanuel Macron, to work on the five deficiencies that are left so that Mauritius becomes fully compliant with the Financial Action Task Force regulations.  Eight experts from the EU will be in Mauritius in August 2020 to help the country on the five sub-committees working on those five deficiencies, he announced.

Addressing the audience, Minister Bholah, emphasised that the Chamber remains a privileged partner for the Government and has always collaborated on various strategic fronts ranging from export, investment, trade negotiations, arbitration and capacity-building activities.

For him, however, the need of the hour amid the Covid-19 pandemic calls for a fundamental shift in the country’s traditional methods of production.  This global health crisis has demonstrated that agility, flexibility and automation are sine qua non conditions to ensure survival and technology can be a powerful enabler, he stated.  He thus urged members of the business community to adopt exponential disruptive technologies associated with Industry 4.0 such as Artificial Intelligence, Soft Robotics, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Virtual Augmented Reality.

Minister Sawmynaden, expressed gratitude to the MCCI for supporting Government in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The aspects of ensuring continuous availability of basic commodities, and zero disruption in the distribution supply chain especially food items was a challenge in itself, he noted. However, jointly and collaboratively Mauritius managed to face the situation and the results are cogent, he highlighted.

The Minister also acknowledged that the MCCI has been a partner in enabling the country achieve spectacular economic transformation, from a mono-crop industry dominated by the sugar cane to the diversification of the economy through the conception of other value-added sectors – particularly light manufacturing, offshore banking and financial services, and service-related information and communication technology.