Rethinking the strategy Mauritius-Africa for a new economic partnership
The economic consequences of Covid-19 opens up new opportunities of doing business in Africa and is redefining Mauritius’ Africa strategy. This, essentially, is what emerged from a webinar organised by Mon Trésor Ltd, a subsidiary of the group Omnicane. This online conference united a group of specialists to address the issue. The identified channels went from global business to digitalisation, encompassing the manufacturing sector and the agro-industry sector.
Jacques d’Unienville, Director of Omnicane, was emphatic: the situation post Covid-19 signals a new strategy, a new way of thinking which will benefit both local and regional markets. Thus, food security, energy and health sectors, he said, should translate as a matter of urgency in the wake of this crisis, to swiftly manufacture for the domestic market whilst simultaneously adding value.
The Group’s involvement in property development and the logistics of the freeport, heralded a new context which required a rethinking of Omnicane’s projects in this part of the country advised Jacques d’Unienville. He underlined the importance of the Freeport as a dynamic sector, embracing a turnover of US$ 1 billion. Omnicane has also extended an invitation to regional partners to accompany the Group in their new projects. «We would like to opt for high value-add products, whilst leaning on regional brands», emphasised Jacques d’Unienville.
The interim CEO of the Economic Development Board, Ken Poonoosamy asserted that with the arrival of the confinement, the importance of digilitisation as a future niche for operators seeking commercial opportunities in Africa was advantageous. He indicated that Mauritius, to this end, has developed a «cloud computing» platform destined to serve the continent. Conscious of the necessity of developing the pharmaceutical sector following the effect of the health pandemic, Ken Poonoosamy affirmed his conviction to see Mauritius position itself to take advantage of the vast regional market.
Faced with numerous challenges which confront global business today, the Mauritian jurisdiction has all the necessary tools to succeed. This was the view of Sridhar Nagarajan, Regional Managing Director of IQ-EQ, ex-Cim Global. He insisted that the authorities multiply their initiatives to extricate Mauritius from the European Union’s black list and the Financial Action Group’s grey list.
This webinar, which was chaired by Amedée Darga, allowed other presenters to outline the economic partnership between Mauritius and Africa, namely Lilowtee Rajmun-Jooseery, Director of MEXA; Dr McLean Sibanda, Director of Bigen Global Ltd, and Monique Labat, of Monique Labat Consulting (Pty) Ltd.
Villen ANGANAN