By Vishal Bheeroo
On the sidelines of the Juristconsult Investment Summit 2022, Platform Africa spoke in an exclusive face-to-face with Finance Minister Dr. Renganaden Padyachy on the role of Mauritius as a trading platform, the significance of several trade agreements such as CEPCA inked with India and future strategy to help attract HNWIs to make the jurisdiction home through various measures implemented.
- How do you see the market challenges in 2023 for financial services coupled with a slew of agreements such as CEPCA with India for collaboration?
What I can tell you is that it’s not about being a hub but rather we are a trading platform splaying on goods or services. That’s our ambition and we want more people to work and live here and do business in Mauritius in a good way. So, having signed all these free trade agreements with India, China, and the last one being the African Union Free Trade Agreement, we are talking about a whole market of more than 5 billion people. So, we’ve got the potential here and just need to have this ambition for people to know we have signed the various agreements, particularly during the pandemic times and some people don’t know it, I say they are going to have the opportunity with these agreements on which we are working.
2. According to a recent report, Mauritius is positing itself as one of the richest countries catering to foreign investment and HNWIs. What are the future ambitions?
The future ambition is to continue to push on that front. We want the country to be an example, by committing to work on that pertaining to people continuing to live in Mauritius because of the living standards where it is one of the most beautiful countries with attributes such as political stability, economic stability, good governance having all the ingredients to attract people to do business in this country.
