On September 19, the Russian Сhamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) hosted a presentation of economic and investment potential of the Republic of Mauritius, organized by the Embassy of Mauritius in Russia with the support of the Coordinating Committee on Economic Cooperation with sub-Saharan Africa (AfroCom) and the Economic Development Council of Mauritius.
The presentation, which attracted more than 70 business and industry leaders, was to show case potential investment sectors and various incentives made available by the Mauritius Government for foreign investors. The event was also meant to prepare a Russian group for the 2nd Mauritius-Russia forum in Mauritius scheduled for November 19-23, 2018.
Mauritius Ambassador Maheswarsingh Khemloliva noted the importance and necessity to take business relationship between Mauritius and Russia to a new level after the official meeting between Mauritian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, in November 2017.
“Mauritius has the potential to be a preferred partner for Russia in trade, investment and tourism. Mauritius has the ambition to strengthen economic ties with Russia and become a good platform for Russia to do business with Africa,” he told the gathering.
During the presentation, Head of the Global Outreach Strategic Business Unit of Economic Development Board, Mauritius (EDB), Arvind Radhakrishna, explained that the Economic Development Board, Mauritius (EDB), the Government sole agency in Mauritius, has been looking at trade and investment promotion.
He discussed with the participants about the economic and investment potential in Mauritius, showed different videos with the main sectors of the economy and the dynamics of their development.
Radhakrishna finally assured that the EDB would provide all necessary logistics for the Russian delegation’s visit to Mauritius. He said that Russian business people be connected with the right partners in Mauritius.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of AfroCom, Dmitry Suchkov, explained the primary task of AfroCom, that is, to promote the expansion of Russia’s partnership with the countries of Africa, raise its effectiveness and focus on the implementation of mutually beneficial projects. He emphasized that AfroCom be considered as a bridge between Russian business and government structures of African countries, including Mauritius.
“There are many opportunities for entrepreneurial initiative. Russia with a high level of technological development can share technologies in various fields, development in the field of information technologies, assist in the creation of transport infrastructure, including port infrastructure, in energy, security of civil and industrial facilities and agriculture, fisheries,” he said.
“In all these areas, Russian business is ready for competition and have something to offer to the Mauritian partners. Separately, I would like to note such areas of interaction as education, health care and culture. Over 800 Mauritians graduated from Russian/Soviet universities,” Suchkov stressed in his speech.
All the speakers noted the mutual interest of Russia and Mauritius in business cooperation and the prospects of its development, positive dynamics of development of bilateral economic relations, interest in pushing for the growth of trade turnover and of tourist flow to Mauritius. The Mauritius side expressed its readiness to support Russian companies interested in working in Mauritius.
Mauritius is a country with growing economy, high living standards and has favorable conditions for doing business. The World Bank report in 2016 indicated that Mauritius occupied the first place among African countries south of the Sahara on the business climate.
It has strong and friendly relations with various African and foreign countries. Mauritius and Russia have good diplomatic relations. In March 2018, Mauritius marked its 50th year of diplomatic relations with Russia.