Mauritius – Advantages

The Mauritius’ Advantages:

Social and political stability

  • Mauritius is internationally recognized for its continuity of government, rule of law, political and social stability.
  • A melting point of the world’s oldest civilizations, Mauritius is a rare example of social peace and unity in a multi-cultural society. The population boasts origins from the European and African continents, as well as from India and China.
  • With such a cosmopolitan legacy, no wonder our hospitality is legendary. Mauritius is also a safe place to live, Mauritians being naturally well-inclined and of a peaceful nature.
  • All Mauritians enjoy freedom of expression and of religion. There is freedom of the press with the presence of dozens of dailies and weeklies.
  • Mauritius has also enjoyed enduring political stability ever since its early days as an independent nation born in 1968. The Government is democratically elected every 5 years. The Constitution is based on the Westminster Parliamentary model.
  • Our successive governments have all shown strong and sustained commitment to a market-driven economy where free enterprise can flourish and foreign investment prosper.

 

Open Economy

  • The Mauritian economy is one of the fastest growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa. In just three decades, the country has moved from a mono-crop sugar-dominated economy to a services-oriented one and is now heading towards an innovation-driven economy. The tertiary sector currently accounts for 70% of GDP, a fair indication of our impressive track record.
  • While traditional growth sectors like tourism and manufacturing continue to be strong and resilient despite the recent world financial turmoil, many other opportunities have arisen in emerging sectors such as the ICT / BPO, Healthcare and Knowledge sectors with the potential to become tomorrow’s economic pillars of a regional powerhouse. This rapid transition to a mature economy, one of just two in Africa to have graduated to middle-income status, comes as a promising result of sound economic management coupled with a vision to succeed, shared between the government, the business community and civil society at large.
  • Nowadays, Mauritius is opening itself to the world by offering business friendly platforms. A foreign investor can settle hassle-free in Mauritius and be operational in just 3 days. Add to this, Mauritius has one of the world’s most generous tax regimes, where personal and corporate tax are harmonized at a low 15% and where dividends are tax free. A country with no exchange control, a country where export-oriented operators enjoy duty-free privilege for their inputs and equipment, In the same vein, Mauritius has signed non-double taxation agreements with 39 countries so far and is signatory to a number of Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements, namely with 36 countries.
  • Mauritian traditional investors are also very receptive to partnering with their international counterparts. An increasing number of joint ventures are being witnessed today, in the traditionally strong sectors as well as in a growing number of innovation-driven emerging sectors. The Government has ensured doing business in and from Mauritius is both easy and smooth and complies with best practices in terms of transparency, good governance and ethics. Our ranking as 1st country in Africa in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report is a testimony of the efforts put to position Mauritius as a jurisdiction of choice for conducting business.
  • Mauritius has enacted anti-money laundering and terrorist financing legislation while the business framework itself has been made simpler. Commercial law in Mauritius is a combination of the English Common Law and the French Code Napoléon. Companies setting up in Mauritius fall under the provisions of the Companies Act 2001 while The Business Facilitation Act 2006 has further simplified the operational framework for doing business in Mauritius.
  • The Government plays a facilitator role in several sectors and a regulator role in a number of specialized sectors. The port area has been endowed with a One-stop-Shop to speed up required clearances. The Bank of Mauritius is the country’s Central Bank and the regulator of the banking sector. The non-bank financial sector, which includes the growing global business platform of Mauritius, is regulated by the Financial Services Commission.

 

Infrastructure

  • The Government is committed to endow Mauritius with a reliable, efficient and supportive infrastructure, at par with the best available in developed countries. To this effect, government has already invested massively and has committed large sums of funds for the continuous upgrading of the overall infrastructure.
  • The island has an extensive network of roads including a multiple lane highway linking the airport, in the southeast, to the north. A number of new road infrastructure project are underway with a view to alleviate traffic jam at peak hours.
  • The entire island is connected with electricity (stable power) and water supply for agricultural, industrial and household consumption. Industries can thus be located anywhere on the island.
  • Mauritius has a well-developed digital network infrastructure and offers excellent telecommunication facilities namely ADSL, ISDN, high bandwidth international leased lines and high-speed Internet access. The SAT3/WASC/SAFE (South Africa Far East) submarine fiber-optic cable links Mauritius to Europe via South Africa and to Asia via India and Malaysia – thus placing the island on the information superhighway.
  • The airport and the harbor are equipped to meet the full needs of both passenger and cargo traffic. Mauritius has regular air and sea connections with the rest of the world with the major airlines and shipping companies servicing the island. A new airport terminal is currently being built and will be fully operational by the end of 2011.
  • Fully serviced industrial buildings, industrial parks and IT habitats are available for plug and play type activities. All required utilities in terms of water, electricity and telecommunications are delivered to the doorstep.
  • Moreover, industrialists interested to build their own factory space can lease industrial land on a long term basis, from the State Land Development Company (SLDC), at very concessionary rates.
  • The Ebene Cyber city, the cornerstone of “Mauritius the Cyber Island”, is a new generation business park with state-of-the-art telecommunication facilities and modern office space, spread over 64 hectares.

 

Bilingual Workforce

  • Mauritius also has a smart brand of fine professionals, most of who qualified from internationally recognized institutions and/or world class professional bodies: chartered accountants, financial analysts, corporate lawyers, tax specialists, business consultants, IT engineers, architects. Recently too, the Government of Mauritius enacted legislation encouraging young foreign professionals to set up in the country.
  • Benefitting also from a convenient time zone that makes same-day transactions possible from US, through Europe and Middle-East up to Australasia, Mauritius is strongly emerging as a major international business platform in this region of the world.
  • Mauritius has the highest adult literacy rate of the whole of Africa. Mauritius is now reaping the benefits of a strong commitment to free education for all initiated in the late 70’s. This highly disciplined and educated workforce is also equally fluent in English and French, while many also speak a third international language: Hindi, Mandarin, Urdu and a host of European languages. The workforce is young, 29.2% being aged less than 30 and business spirited, innovative thinking and open to the world.

 

Business & Financial Hub

  • Mauritius is a strategic business centre situated in the Indian Ocean at the cross road between Asia, Africa and Australia. It is one of the most open and financially sound economies in sub-Saharan Africa. The success of the Mauritian economy is largely a result of its political and socio-economic stability, coupled with good governance and a pro-investment climate.
  • Mauritius is recognized as being an excellent place for doing business. The country’s adoption of international best business practices and sustainable development policies has been acknowledged by international agencies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED), the Financial Action Task Force (FAFT) and the World Bank (WB).
  • The island is fully open to foreign capital, talents and ideas. Ranked 1st in the 2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance and 1st in Sub-Saharan Africa and 17th globally in the World Bank Doing Business Report 2010, Mauritius is the springboard for investment and doing business in Africa, Middle East and Asia.

 

As a business and financial hub, Mauritius offers the following advantages:

  • Favorable time zone (GMT +4)
  • Attractive fiscal policies
  • 34 active Double Taxation Avoidance Treaties (DTAs)
  • No exchange controls
  • An efficient banking system
  • A stock exchange opened to foreign investors
  • Reliable and modern infrastructure
  • New open Air Access policies
  • Efficient telecommunications system ( connected to SAFE fiber optic network)
  • Availability of qualified labour force
  • Occupation /residence permits granted in three days
  • Scheme available for foreigners to acquire property in Mauritius

 

Access to Markets

While endowed with a small, but increasingly affluent local population, Mauritius has secured preferential access to markets worth several hundreds of millions of consumers. With the EU, through the Cotonou agreement; with the US under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act; with Eastern and Southern Africa, through the COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) and SADC (Southern African Development Community).

Mauritian traditional investors are also very receptive to partnering with their international counterparts. An increasing number of joint ventures are being witnessed today, in the traditionally strong sectors as well as in a growing number of innovation-driven emerging sectors.

 

Exquisite Lifestyle

Last but not least…While a few other emerging economic forces of the world can rightly claim attributes as strong as Mauritius in the business arena, Mauritians are UNIQUE in one single most powerful point: nowhere on earth will you find such an attractive and buoyant place to do business blended so exquisitely with an incomparable “art de vivre” set against a stunningly beautiful tropical environment.

Enjoyable and beautiful though, Mauritius is also a safe place to live either as a national or an expatriate single professional, family or retiree. Crime prevalence is very low making Mauritius one of the safest law-abiding countries of the world. On the health front, the country is free from many of the diseases affecting the sub-tropical countries of the world.

Several public and private hospitals and clinics and specialized health centers can be found locally, offering world-class service. While health services are free-of-charge in government hospitals, dispensaries and specialized clinics around the country, health insurance policies are currently available from a number of local and international service providers.

The education sector boasts of several schools of international standards, both public and private, delivering the Cambridge University ‘A’ levels, the French Baccalaureate and the International Baccalaureate. Several tertiary education providers can also be found; offering internally recognized degrees and post-degree qualifications.

Over the island, several competitively priced luxury apartments, fully furnished villas and beachfront residences are available for rent. A few international property agents have appointed representative agencies locally.

Foreign nationals, investors and non-investors alike, may also buy freehold property in Mauritius under the provisions of 2 specially studied schemes, the “Integrated Resort Scheme” and the “Real Estate Scheme”. Non-nationals holding a Permanent Residence status enjoy the rights to acquire property as native Mauritians.