Guest Post: Doing Business in Africa-Mauritius
A JURISDICTION OF EXCELLENCE
• Mauritius is an island off the east coast of Africa located in the Indian Ocean.
• Mauritius has developed a finance industry since the early 1990s.
• As well as the finance industry, there are vibrant local industries – mainly in the sectors of agriculture,
manufacturing, construction, textiles and tourism.
• The finance industry is now an established international gateway into the growing markets of Africa and
Asia.
• Mauritius has an envied network of tax treaties with some 37 countries including India, China and other
Asian countries, countries in Africa and countries in Europe. This makes Mauritius an excellent platform to
structure both inbound and outbound investments between Africa and Asia.
• For the fifth consecutive year, the World Bank’s 2013 Doing Business report ranks Mauritius first among African economies (19th worldwide, out of 185 economies) in terms of the overall ease of doing business.
• There are no exchange controls in Mauritius.
• Mauritius has an excellent infrastructure to support the finance industry. There are regular international
flights, modern office premises with modern IT and telecommunication facilities and highly trained and
motivated professionals in law, accountancy, tax and finance.
• A number of international banks have substantial offices in Mauritius – including HSBC, Barclays,
Deutsche Bank, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Investec.
• Mauritius is bi-lingual (French and English). This greatly assists business with African countries.
• Competitive wages and easily to recruit employees.
INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR POLITICAL STABILITY AND ECONOMIC STRENGTH
• The regulation of the finance industry is highly regarded and Mauritius is on the white list of the OECD.
• In 2011, Mauritius was again ranked 1st in the Mo Ibrahim Index of good governance in Africa.
• In the World Bank Report, Doing Business 2013 Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-size
Enterprises, Mauritius was ranked 1st in Sub-Saharan Africa and ranked 19th out of the 185 economies
considered by the report.
• Mauritius is a regional leader in economic freedom. The 2013 Index of the Heritage Foundation of
Economic Freedom ranks Mauritius 8th overall out of 177 countries and 1st in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The Global Competitiveness Index 2011/2012 classified Mauritius 2nd in Sub-Saharan Africa and 54th out
of 142 countries.
THE BAD OF DOING BUSINESS IN MAURITIUS
• Even though being a country in development, some foreign investors tend to find it difficult to adapt to the Mauritian culture, which can be categorised as a very islandish way of doing things. This can translate into the business and personal world as well. Still, foreigners tend to find it difficult to adapt to the working culture in Mauritius and can categorise it as being a bit too lax.
• The employment law in Mauritius does not differentiate between a company being a small and medium enterprises and big companies so that if a company which experiences a redundancy will be faced with various and very expensive penalities to lay off employees. This also poses a problem when it comes to payment of overtime, various public holidays and number of annual leaves and sick leaves.
About Author
Jessyca Joyekurun has over six years of experience in the human resources field and has been running Expand Human Resources in Mauritius for two years. She specializes in providing human resource outsourcing for small and medium enterprises. She has also recently opened two branches in Uganda and Tanzania. She holds a Bachelor of Law from the University of Kent and is currently reading an MBA in Human Resource Management from the University of Wales. She has been awarded a ‘Special Mention by Jury’ by the HR Excellence awards by the human resource council of development in Mauritius in 2013
Super gorgeous view!