A new report released by Oxford Insights shows that even though there is a digital divide as well as data poverty in Africa, five countries on the continent are taking leaps into leveraging technologies to accelerate economic growth with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).&nbsp;



In the 2020 Government AI Readiness Index Mauritius took the 45th position globally out of 172 countries across the world, making it the highest-ranked African country on the index. According to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MEWNMV6MQI&amp;feature=youtu.be">Oxford Insights</a>, Mauritius has always been forward-looking in terms of AI as it is is the only country on the continent to have published an AI strategy.&nbsp;



“Mauritius approach to AI is fantastic… They have a clear strategy as to what they want to achieve. They are also bringing the private sector and academia with them. They have a council with all of these sectors on them. They are investing in the skills and they are thinking about how that can be transferred back into the industry. That’s amazing and that’s the perfect playbook,” Richard Stirling, Oxford Insights CEO says. &nbsp;



The methodology of this index looks at a countries’ government’s willingness to adopt AI and if the country has a good supply of AI expertise and tools from the technology sector. In addition to that part, these tools need to be built and trained on high-quality and representative data with the appropriate infrastructure to be delivered to and used by citizens. 



Mauritius is also ranked 13 out of 34 countries on this year’s Responsible Use Sub-Index. This index, also by Oxford Insights, tracks the ethical use of AI in countries across the globe. The debate around responsible AI was put into focus this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, issues around privacy as well as ongoing global inequality. The index was measured using inclusivity, accountability, transparency, and privacy as some of its main indicators.&nbsp;



“Just because you are good at building AI, it does not mean you are using it ethically and responsibly,” Stirling says.&nbsp;



Among Mauritius, South Africa was also placed 59th globally on Government AI Readiness Index, Seychelles 68th, Kenya 71st, and Rwanda taking the 87th position. And although these countries are lower, Stirling elaborates on how these countries have focused on skills development which will harness the potential for AI not only in public services but in other sectors. Nations from the US, the UK to Russia, China, and Israel hold the top positions on the index, however, there are no countries in Africa in the top 20.&nbsp;



“We are lagging in technological development so we are playing catch up most of the time and essentially we are in catch up mode,” Araba Sey, Sub-Saharan Africa AI expert, commented on the Oxford Insights website.&nbsp;



Jean Lebel, President, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), added in a statement that though Ai has the potential to transform governance and public services throughout the world, there is a danger that regions, like in Africa, will be left behind. Lebel further adds that the index should encourage new collaborations and investments that could potentially assist with the barriers to government&#8217;s AI readiness and responsibilities. 



“We believe that this, in part, will help those currently lagging behind in our index to improve their AI readiness so that existing economic and technology inequality doesn&#8217;t become further entrenched and leave billions of citizens with worse quality public services,” Lebel said.

Young femal e engineer concept. GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Mauritius, South Africa & Seychelles Are In The Driver’s Seat Of AI Readiness In Africa

The World Court on Monday told Britain to give up control over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, and said it had wrongfully forced the population to leave in the 1970s to make way for a U.S. air base. 



Britain split the archipelago off from its colonial island territory of Mauritius in 1965, three years before granting independence to Mauritius &#8211; minus the islands.



In the early 1970s, it evicted almost 2,000 residents to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for the base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, which it had leased to the United States.



In a non-binding advisory opinion, the top United Nations court for inter-state disputes said Britain had acted unlawfully in the decolonization process and should relinquish control over the islands, which it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory.



Although the court was not asked to issue an opinion on sovereignty, Monday’s decision in effect urged Britain to hand the islands, which it has controlled since 1814, over to Mauritius.



But Presiding Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf said in a summary of the decision that Britain was “under obligation to bring to an end the administration of Chagos Islands as rapidly as possible”.



The case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as the World Court is officially known, is seen as a test of the legitimacy of deals struck between great powers and small states at the end of the colonial era.



For years Chagossians have lobbied London to let them return. In 2016, Britain extended the United States’ lease of Diego Garcia until 2036 and said expelled islanders could not go back.



<h4>“HISTORIC MOMENT”</h4>



 Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said it was “a historic moment for Mauritius and all its people, including the Chagossians who were unconscionably removed from their homeland and prevented from returning for the last half century”.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“Our territorial integrity will now be made complete, and when that occurs, the Chagossians and their descendants will finally be able to return home.”</blockquote>



The U.N. General Assembly asked the court in February 2017 to advise on whether the process of decolonization had been concluded lawfully.



In his summary, Yusuf said: “The court having found that the decolonization of Mauritius was not conducted in a manner consistent with the right of peoples to self-determination, it follows that the United Kingdom’s continued administration of the Chagos Archipelago constitutes a wrongful act entailing the international responsibility of that State.”



Mauritius argued that it had been forced to give up the archipelago to gain independence from Britain. Britain maintained that Mauritius had given up the islands willingly.



By 13 votes to one, the judges backed the decision, which is not binding but carries weight under international law.



Diego Garcia has played an important role in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan since 1991, acting as a launch pad for U.S. long-range bombers. The United States and Britain both voted against the U.N. resolution seeking the court’s opinion.



Philippe Sands, a member of the Mauritius legal team at the ICJ, said the next step would be for Britain and Mauritius to sit down and work out a handover:



“A way will be found to move this forward, safeguarding the interests of everyone but recognizing what the court has said.” -Reuters



-Anthony Deutsch

gettyimages-145081852-170667a

World Court: Britain Must Return Indian Ocean Islands To Mauritius

The gentle sea breeze, the glint of classic cars, swaying sugarcane plantations, and horses trotting around – while this might seem like the description of a picture postcard, this is the everyday life of Viju Gowreesunkur, an entrepreneur in the island nation of Mauritius.
This sugarcane planter, who has a vintage car collection that is the pride of the island, also knows a thing or two about horses. He grew up with them, and today, even owns a few.
Mauritius occupies a significant place in Africa’s horse industry. The country boasts an average racing population of 450 horses, and has an important equestrian link with South Africa. All of the nation’s racehorse imports – 150 every year – come from South Africa.
“A lot of South African jockeys ride in Mauritius. The traveling time to Mauritius is only three hours by air. The horses adapt well with our climate. A lot of South Africans are immigrating to Mauritius, and horse racing can be a main social activity for the expatriates,” sums up Gowreesunkur.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2013/08/01/racing-into-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Racing Into History</a>
In South Africa, the horseracing industry contributes R2.71 billion ($226 million) annually to its GDP. Efforts are on to ramp up those numbers.
And as with the expatriates taking to horse racing in Mauritius, here too, it’s no longer the pastime of only the privileged few.
“These days, horse racing is no longer the domain of royalty, and with this shift came the glorious possibility that anything is possible and that the richest races could be won just as easily by a working man as by a multi-millionaire,” says Adrian Todd, Managing Director of SA Equine Health and Protocols NPC, in South Africa.
Mick Goss, the CEO of Summerhill Stud in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, says while owning racehorses can be an aspirational endeavor, it can also arise from a deep-seated connectivity with animals in general, or horses in particular.
“The result is that racehorses are owned by people from across the social and economic spectra, from the wealthy to the determined,” says Goss. In its 40th year, Summerhill Stud is one of the country’s top horse breeders, and it has produced several champion racehorses.
<div id="attachment_35865" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35865" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-35865 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-1024x681.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Approximate annual cost to maintain a horse on a styud farm in South Africa: $5,000. Photo supplied.</div>
Goss had humble beginnings starting the stud farm. He came from a family of generations of horsemen and was previously a lawyer, when after 17 years, he gave up law to start out with nothing in the horse business but “a deep-seated will to make it work”.
“I inherited the horse ‘disease’, for which there is no known vaccine,” he jests.
Today, his farm runs a school of management excellence in equine studies, the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere, he says, and the results have been “extraordinary”.
Goss says South Africa is set for a record year.
“2018 will be a game-changing year,” he says, with respect to the efforts now being made to rejig the racing and breeding industries “with substantial investments towards the normalization of export protocols with international trading partners”.
There is significant demand for South Africa-based horses in the international market for their quality and affordability. A case in point being that in the past, at the $10 million Dubai World Cup, the richest day in international thoroughbred racing held in March every year, South African-trained horses have won at many levels.
“We have produced winners at the highest level in almost all of the major racing jurisdictions of the world. It is little surprise that our horses are as sought -after as they are internationally, more so as they cost a fraction of their counterparts from other major racehorse-producing countries,” says Goss.
But there are challenges, including strict export restrictions, quarantine controls and prevalence of the African Horse Sickness (AHS).
“The current onerous export restrictions make it difficult for the racing and breeding industry to expand and very hard for our horses to travel and compete internationally,” says Todd.
The country has been severely curtailed in its ability to export horses due to AHS.
South African horses have to endure a quarantine of up to six months before they reach their country of destination.
“Compare this with the delivery of 30 days of horses acquired in countries like Australia and New Zealand, destined for South Africa,” says Goss. “From this, you can deduce the obstacles South African horse people face in the export of their products.”
AHS is a vector-borne viral disease, and has affected South African horse exports since the 1960s.
Goss says he has only suffered one loss to AHS in 40 years on his farm, but says, if properly managed, the losses can be avoided.
“Proliferation of game farms around the country has meant concentrations of zebra in close proximity to horse farms, which has exacerbated the problem,” says Goss.
“The reason is many zebras are carriers of the virus, though they have an inbuilt immunity against it, and while the disease itself is not contagious, it can be carried from one animal to another by a vector.”
Thankfully, there have been breakthroughs in its detection.
“The latest technologies mean that we are able to detect AHS within a matter of hours nowadays and with the quarantine protocols we now have in place, we can guarantee we are unlikely ever to export infected horses,” says Goss.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sometime-in-africa/2013/11/01/love-mountain-hate-horse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ: Love The Mountain Hate The Horse</a>
“With new scientific developments and a new Polymerase Chain Reaction test to detect AHS within hours, South Africa is busy working towards a much shorter period of quarantine of possibly 16 days. This will obviously open the door to the world market and allow the entire horse industry to grow to its full potential,” says Todd.
This test has been developed by Professor Alan Guthrie and colleagues at the Faculty of Veterinary Science’s Equine Research Centre in the University of Pretoria, which has improved the lab diagnosis of AHS by increasing the sensitivity of detection and shortening the time required for the diagnosis.
Equine experts like Todd are optimistic the strides taken by the industry will make this year more successful for the horse industry.
Currently, horses are exported from Cape Town’s Kenilworth Racecourse, which serves as a quarantine, transit and export station. The horses are required to serve a three-month quarantine period in Mauritius on top of the three weeks already spent in quarantine in Cape Town, before going on to their final destination.
“The opening of export protocols will allow the industry to unlock a potential billion rand market. This in turn will lead to an expansion of the industry and a significant increase in rural employment…,” says Todd.
The platforms and opportunities are plenty.
In December, FORBES AFRICA visited the Turffontein Racecourse in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg for the glitzy Gauteng Sansui Summer Cup. Dating back 128 years, and along with the Durban July and the Sun Met in Cape Town, it’s one of the big three races on the South African horse racing calendar, with a prize money of R1.25 million ($104,373) up for grabs.
In South Africa, horse-lovers come from all walks of life.
“From rural communities who use horses for transport, to families who buy ponies for their children to ride for fun, to show jumpers and wealthy [South African] businessmen like Dr Richard Maponya who loves horseracing,” elaborates Peter Gibson, the CEO of Racing South Africa.
Prices range greatly depending on the breed and what it will be used for, but buying a thoroughbred racehorse could set you back by an average of over R300,000 ($25,000).
Furthermore, it takes R50,000 ($4,000) to R60,000 ($5,000) a year to maintain a horse on a stud farm.
“Thoroughbred studs are cash guzzlers, and you need to surround yourself with people that are capable of contributing towards the capital needs of the business by way of their support as clients, as well as developing strong relationships with the financial institutions that support you,” says Goss.
“The horse breeding and racing industries by their very nature are among the most labor-intensive activities in South Africa, and according to a recent audit of the industry by Grant Thornton, it employs in excess of 100,000 people, either directly or in those businesses that provide services to racing and breeding.”
Hopefully, in the years to come, the “cash guzzlers” will repay the favor, in leaps and bounds.

Brave-Tin-Soldier-retouched-cover-pic-online

The South African Horse Industry: A Potential Billion Rand Market

In Mauritius, sugarcane plantations, occupying roughly a third of the island, stand tall and proud. Just like Viju Gowreesunkur, who owns quite a few of them, and is a man who has tasted sucrose and success on the windswept island.
On some days in these parts in Central Flacq, the gentle rhythm of the swaying green plantations and cool sea breeze is interrupted by the staccato sound of an old engine roaring to life.
Locals know this to be Gowreesunkur, out for a drive in one of his many classic Rolls-Royces or cabriolets decked in colors that stand out in the ubiquitous green. The timeless appeal of the sugarcane fields and the classic cars take unsuspecting passersby to another era.
“I love old things, old houses, old furniture… and old cars that make me nostalgic,” says Gowreesunkur, who at 63 has almost as many vintage cars parked in his front yard.
“When you see an old car, it brings back memories of your parents, an old film… the cars are that and so many things, you can’t really express it.”
When FORBES AFRICA meets this sugarcane farmer in the airy patio of his unpretentious two-storeyed Mauritius home that he has been staying in for more than three decades, he is seated on a jaded cane sofa in mustard-colored shorts and a grey t-shirt.
His sunglasses are perched on his forehead but his eyes are fixed on the collection of cars, or his “children”, in front of him. There are no pricey artefacts in his patio – his valuables are all out in the dirt, metal and motor shining in the morning sun.
The saying ‘you don’t see classic cars in a therapist’s parking lot’ must hold true for Gowreesunkur, as he is a man for whom therapy is this cathartic sight that greets him every morning; that makes him grateful for the gift of life, as he deeply inhales in the crisp saline air and the sweet smell of money.
“If I don’t see them, I miss them,” he says.
The antique enthusiast says he has at least 50 vintage cars in his collection, a record in all of Mauritius. A respected senior at Mauritius’ Vintage and Classic Car Owners Association (VCCOA), he regularly attends meets and races. He says there may be about five serious vintage car collectors in the country.
In Gowreesunkur’s dark, musty garage, under greasy white sheets, are such jewels as a stunning burgundy 1950 Opel, six Chevrolets, six Jaguars, three horse wagons, a black Daimler that belonged to the Governor of Mauritius in the colonial period, and three Rolls-Royces, including a 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud “believed to have belonged to Marilyn Monroe”.
For his 55th birthday, his wife Sarita, formerly a mathematics teacher who now runs the couple’s craft shop at the departure lounge of the airport in Mauritius, got him an old red BMW, and for his 60th, a blue Jaguar convertible from South Africa.
Gowreesunkur’s trusty mechanics keep them all in working order, although the family as a whole don’t mind getting their hands greasy and dirty.
You need to look at the ground for any evidence of the mechanics – all you see are pairs of legs and grimy gumboots as they are perennially under the cars fixing them.
Born in Vacoas, near Curepipe in Mauritius, Gowreesunkur, whose family goes back four generations to the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, grew up privileged. Parents from both families were landowners who owned cars, plantations and horses.
“My granddad owned racehorses. My father also used to ride horses. My dad’s sister is the first Indian lady to drive a car in Mauritius, and was also the first to cut her hair and ride a horse,” laughs Gowreesunkur as he speaks of his 90-year-old aunt who is still alive. Memories come thick and fast.
“My father was also a champion boxer on the island, but he died when I was little and while doing his medical studies in France. Our house was on five acres and we even had a gym and stable in the huge colonial house.”
Gowreesunkur’s first car was a beige Citroën that he has now given up. Every car he owns has a story. He bought the spotless white 1933 Rolls-Royce in England five years ago for about £20,000 (approximately $25,500 today), and had it shipped when the government allowed the import of vintage cars.
“I had a friend in England, I phoned him and said, ‘can you see the car for me’. He traveled the whole day to reach there and sealed the deal.”
He says he is very particular about checking out the vehicles before he buys them, as he has been duped several times.
“I had bought a 1920 Chevrolet and got a good friend from Port Elizabeth in South Africa to pick up the car. I had bought it based on a picture of the car [I had seen]; but my friend called to say it was useless, and that trees had grown inside the car. So I had to resell it for a very low price,” says Gowreesunkur. Yet, such setbacks haven’t stopped him from indulging in more collectibles. He next wants to invest in a Buick and a Bentley.
“[To buy them], you don’t use the money you need, but spare money, if you have it,” he says.
“He always says ‘this is the last car we are buying’, but these cars are the pulse of our life now,” says Sarita.
“I drive for pleasure… When you drive an old car through the sugarcane fields, you don’t feel anything, you don’t feel the bumps, it’s incredible!” adds her husband.
But ask him the total worth of his car collection and he vehemently shakes his head: “I don’t want to know how much I spent. Please don’t ask me.”
And which is his most favorite car? “You can’t pick a favorite, they are your children too.”
Seated next to him during the interview, his second daughter, Pevashi, 30, a veterinarian trained in Budapest, nods in agreement.
She is on holiday but has a busy schedule looking after her father’s 15 horses on the ranch, as well as the stray dogs that also find a home in an enclosure in their backyard. Gowreesunkur’s elder daughter Venita, 33, is married and settled in the Canary Islands. The two will eventually inherit his car collection.
But Gowreesunkur has plans to build a museum for his cars, the first of its kind on the island. Sarita says he has already invested in the land by the house with the chimney, the river and the sugarcane plantations. But for now, Gowreesunkur is taking it easy.
“I enjoy the island life, drinking wine and good food.”
He also knows Mauritius inside out.
“I have also been cycling around the island for so many years,” he says.
Gowreesunkur started his career in the country’s biggest sugarcane factory. At the same time, he studied to acquire a diploma in auto-mechanics. There were some detours along the way.
“I went to look for a place in Belle Mare [on the east coast where most hotels are] and brought my five horses. Somebody was building a hotel, and asked me to do horse-riding [for guests at] the hotel. That turned into my hobby as a 30-something. And then it [became] a business – all the hotels asked me,” he says.
“Then it became too hectic and I stopped working at the factory. I looked at my cars and thought I don’t want to wait 60 years to retire and ride them. The CEO, also a friend, of the sugarcane factory told me to sell my horses to him, and keep all the benefits; he gave me 20 acres of sugarcane plantations. At the time, sugar was good money. Then I started buying more land. I bought about 20 or more prime properties near the airport.”
Gowreesunkur did so well he returned the 20 acres to his CEO-friend. He had kept them intact, unsold.
“Nothing is yours. You have to be happy in your mind. Your mouth is so little, how much can you consume?” says Gowreesunkur.
This farmer-entrepreneur’s compassion has seen him rescuing stray dogs on the streets – they pose a real public problem in Mauritius – and bringing them home.
His horses still do the rounds at the five-star hotels and some of his cars are on permanent display at the properties.
It costs him a lot of money to register and maintain his cars. Yet, they come alive in his hands, as he resuscitates them with fuel and passion.
Thus the story of a Mauritius farmer whose riches are not in a bank vault but in a grimy garage filled with nostalgia no currency can buy.
<ul>
<li>Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla</li>
</ul>

The Sugar And Petrol That Drives A Farmer

One would do a double-take on Jaguar Land Rover’s decision to launch their first-ever Jaguar SUV on the volcanic island nation of Mauritius. The island’s claim to fame is its perfect white sand beaches, colorful coral reefs, luxury resorts and vast expanses of sugarcane. With about 1.3 million people, this picture-perfect getaway has everything going for it except market size. So what did Jaguar Land Rover see that other car makers are missing?
Mauritius sits in the middle of the triangle that connects Asia, Africa, and Australia. The small player has been selling this convergence point to position itself as the main conduit of trade between the three regions. At the backend, government reforms over the last three decades have ushered in economic policies that are increasingly friendly to investors. Political stability has supported growth, which surged to 3.7% in 2015 and is projected by the African Development Bank to touch 3.8% this year, at a time when many bigger economies are shrinking. The island has moved into lead position in Africa with its 46th ranking out of 140 economies in the latest edition of the World Economic Forum’s Competitiveness Report. This stellar economic performance has earned Mauritius the title of “Africa’s first tiger”. With strong economic fundamentals, Mauritius is the perfect cocktail of business and lifestyle. But can the Mauritians afford the luxurious life that the island has on offer?
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5163" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_319442189-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
The 2016 Wealth Report is annual appreciation of the size and growth prospects of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in Africa. Mauritius tops the rankings of the report as home to the richest population in Africa, with the average wealth of $21,700 per person. The island’s people are significantly wealthier than the average South African, with a per capita average wealth of $10,300, and Zimbabwe on the last rung with an average of $200 per person. According to the report, the wealth is supported by secure property rights, a vibrant financial sector, and the migration of a large number of wealthy individuals to the sun and sand of Port Louis and other emerging cities in Mauritius. So the fit of a launching a new luxury vehicle into a market already growing in the luxury market and teaming with HNWIs makes perfect sense. The big question was whether going into untrodden SUV territory was the right move for Jaguar?
Throughout the history of Jaguar, the idea of an SUV has either never crossed the minds of all the teams in the company since 1922 or the idea has been crushed every time it reared its head. But, with SUVs expected to account for every five new car sales by 2020, even Jaguar realized that it was time to venture into unknown territory.
The F-Pace was launched in Port Louis in an all-white-clad gaggle of top celebrities; the most influential, and affluent of Mauritius. The mid-size SUV is heating up the competition and looking to steal market share from dominant SUV players, like BMW and Porsche, while also not upsetting sister company Land Rover. The F-Pace will be going head-to-head with the Range Rover Evoque, Audi Q5, Mercedes GLC and Porsche Macan.
The F-Pace is taking a bite at the market at an aggressive entry level price of $50,000, which will get you a 2.0-liter diesel engine, rear-wheel-drive and a manual gearbox. An eight-speed automatic will burn a $55,390-hole in your pocket. The R-Sport package has sportier design elements and 19-inch alloy wheels. For bigger engines, 3.0 liters start at around $75,000. Several of the guests at the glittery launch mentioned that they had been on the waiting list for the F-Pace for serval months and found the price competitive.
On the inside, the F-Pace has drawn inspiration from the XF and XJ family members. The screens and console are easy to navigate. Every F-Pace gets a standard eight-inch touchscreen in the center console, with further infotainment options available. My favorite functionality was the Wi-Fi connectivity that can connect up to eight devices.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5161" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_399732943-Ed-Aldridge-Shutterstock.com--300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
The spaciousness of the F-Pace cannot go unnoticed. With well-thought-out hidden nooks for your handbag, cellphone, and sunglasses, it’s every woman’s dream. The cabin space is more than generous, with an almost flat roofline allowing passengers at the back to be as comfortable as those in the front. The F-Pace has built in practicality with sizeable boot space at 605-liter carrying capacity which, with folded seats, can extend to 1,740 liters. The panoramic sunroof allowed us to take in the light, sounds and splashes of color as we drove through Port Louis.
The F-Pace shows the evolution that the Jaguar Land Rover brand is undergoing. The car is young, sexy, and attractive. Jaguar’s iconic big cat emblem has also been overhauled for a younger look and feel. With Africa’s richest increasingly getting younger, increasingly open-minded, and daring, it makes perfect sense why Jaguar has taken on Africa’s Tiger in the Indian Ocean.

The Big Cat  At Ease With Africa’s Tiger

A continent with a billion-plus population, Africa has only two female billionaires on its rich lists, and has had only two female heads of state – Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and former Malawi president Joyce Banda – if you don’t count Catherine Samba-Panza, interim president of the Central African Republic.
In June 2015, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim was named the first female president of Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa – and became the continent’s third female head of state.
Unlike the others, Gurib-Fakim’s accomplishments are not in politics, but in science – she has had a stellar international career as a biodiversity scientist.
FORBES WOMAN AFRICA caught up with her in Dakar, Senegal, on the sidelines of the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s conference on intellectual property for an emerging Africa.
With a number of frontline issues jostling for the attention of policymakers and the public purse, intellectual property is fighting to become a mainstream issue on the African agenda.
Gurib-Fakim has set her eyes on changing this picture and advocating science and technology as a priority for Africa’s development.
“We find that many African countries are still not amongst the first 20 to have registered patents, there is still lots to do and I think the challenge is to get to grips with the numbers around intellectual property because this is what is going to be a game-changer for the continent,” begins the president.
Gurib-Fakim believes African governments have it all wrong when it comes to identifying the true resources of their economies.
“Natural resources are a finite commodity. Africa has got the biggest resource, which we undervalue, and that is the youth…natural resources in the short term are going to be a quick fix and an earner but in the medium-to-long term, we have to focus on another wealth which we have not valued and that is the youth, this is where the future is for Africa.”
But she also concedes the leadership of African governments needs to pay more than just lip service and show commitment by funding youth-related innovation initiatives. The strength and credibility of African institutions are not far down her “to-change” list.
“Africa needs strong institutions and not strong men, and this is again something that we have to invest in: the credibility of our institutions. But the credibility of our institutions will come with the credibility of our people,” she attests.
For some of the long-serving Big Men in Africa, this may come as a direct challenge. But Gurib-Fakim is clear that investing in the continent’s people will yield the best returns. She is particular that this starts with education.
“In Africa, [the] talk of the demographic dividend and a time bomb; I think they are two sides of the same coin. Eleven million graduates are going to land on the job market every year on the continent. Now, I don’t think any government is able to absorb all this youth,” says Gurib-Fakim.
So, what is the alternative?
“The alternative would be to have economies vested in technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. I think we will have a new kind of layer of professionals that would emerge to build the Africa we want.”

‘Build  The Africa  We Want’

If first impressions are important then Mauritius, the new whiz kid in African business, isn’t doing too badly. Picture this, you are a foreign investor flying into Port Louis and the cabin crew hands you your landing card. Now, across Africa, this is usually a flimsy and poorly printed piece of paper that could blow away.
In Mauritius, it is a thick, bonded, full-color paper printed in two languages. You could mistake it for a share certificate or frame it, stick it on the wall, and pass it off for qualifications. Just one of the many ways the small island in the Indian Ocean, desperate to punch above its weight, wants to win over investors before they hit the arrival lounge.
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Industrious Mauritius has been busy, since it liberalized its sleepy island economy in 2006, on its way to becoming a little Singapore off the coast of Africa. This year, the World Economic Forum named fast-growing Mauritius the most competitive economy in Africa ranking 45th, above South Africa at 54.
“The only difference between Singapore and Mauritius is that they had oil and we had sugar,” smiles Ashok Kumar Aubeeluck, the head of economic research at the Bank
of Mauritius.
Those sugar days are almost over. Thirty years ago, 65,000 Mauritians worked in the sugar cane fields and made up nearly a third of the economy – these days, that number has dropped to around 14,000 with sugar making up a mere 1.2% of the economy, according to Aubeeluck.
It was almost 20 years to the day since I set foot in Mauritius and I was surprised by the changes: a spanking new airport; new roads beneath the construction cranes; a cyber-city in Ebene, south of the capital Port Louis, with a cluster of buildings that could have been imported from Silicon Valley; plus, flourishing export processing zones that attract entrepreneurs and earn around half of the country’s income. This is a place, with an independent judiciary, that not only works, but also cleanly.
“I have worked here for 15 years and I have never been asked for a bribe,” says Deyan Ristic, an analyst with Africa Practice in Port Louis.
Many of the world’s largest financial institutions, no doubt encouraged by the island’s 15% flat tax rate to look after its mere 1.3 million people, have moved in. Foreign companies can claim tax credits leaving them with no more than a 3% rate of tax.
Mauritius sees itself as very much part of Africa and more than half of investments from the island are channelled into the continent. The island is very conscious of its image and is moving to protect it.
“Despite all our efforts to be clean, NGOs and biased international media have attacked us. We have employed a reputed public relations agency to create the image of Mauritius as an international destination for investment,” says the foreign minister, Arvin Boolell, at a conference on private equity on the island, organized by the Board of Investment.
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Seventy percent of the income of Mauritius comes from services. It benefits from it colonial past in that the island works with both French and English law. A clear advantage when the giants of Asia wish to use Port Louis as a staging post for investments in both Anglophone and Francophone Africa.
Surprisingly, many in business believe Mauritius, the island prepared to meet the world halfway, is not doing enough to entice companies.
“We need economic reform more than electoral reform,” says one of the more cynical business types on the island.
Nevertheless, electoral reform is in the air as Mauritius looks to elections, expected to be announced by the end of the year, in 2015 when the tenure of Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam comes to an end. Ramgoolam is a skilled coalition builder who rules with his Labour Party, through a tenuous power sharing deal, and the new incumbent is likely to take power with a similar arrangement.
Many critics have called for an end to the island’s long standing ‘best loser’ system, whereby eight politicians – who did not win their seats – are appointed to Parliament. The doubters complain these appointments are made on ethnic grounds.
The opposition and critics also cry out for new blood in government and complain that the right politicians are not being picked for the big jobs. Whatever happens in the elections, the only near certainty is that they will be peaceful – save for a bit of badinage and posturing – another pillar of stable Mauritius.
“I have seen more verbal violence in the Scottish referendum than I have ever seen in Mauritius,” says Moussa Rawat, the Edinburgh University educated non-executive chairman of the Bramer Corporation – a top five company in Mauritius with assets of $1.5 billion.
After the elections, Mauritius will be looking to the future and business. The may have few people, but plenty of business ideas.
Aubeeluck says Mauritius is looking into getting more out of the Indian Ocean.
“At the moment we are getting around one percent of our economy from the sea, largely through seafood , but if we go ahead with plans to harvest  more marine and plant life from the sea we could be talking between five and seven percent,” says Aubeeluck.
There is also interest in green energy. Aubeeluck is excited by a German project in the North Sea that puts windmills offshore – where the wind always blows.
“The Germans have managed to power 650,000 households with six offshore windmills, we have only 275,000, so with windmills we could power the whole island and reduce our carbon footprint at the same time.”
Foreign money appears to have the same idea. Fred Sisson and his company, Synnove Energy, is sinking $150 million into generating wind and solar energy
on Mauritius.
“The infrastructure is good here and it is very stable and there is growing demand for energy,” says Sisson.
Mauritius has plans to increase its energy output from 650MW to 850MW over the next few years.
The island also plans to strengthen its position in the financial services world. Entrepreneur Dhaneshwar Damry has worked for the last two years on a plan to open the first pan-African electronic bourse in the first quarter of 2015. It will deal with companies with a market capital of $50 million and upwards from mining to healthcare. The plan needs the final approval of the Financial Services Commission.
“I think it will work. If you look at it, a Nigerian company will prefer to work with us, rather than a South African company, because there is a history of business rivalry between the two countries,” says Damry in Port Louis.
Another sign in these troubled economic times that if you could bottle optimism and sell it, Mauritius could make a fortune through export.

Paradise Found?

Mauritius regards fashion as serious business. This was emphasized by the country’s industry, commerce and consumer protection minister, Cader Sayed-Hossen, when he declared that the items at the Trend Forum 2013 were made by Mauritius, not in Mauritius.
The country’s export promotion organization, Enterprise Mauritius, who hosted the event at the Intercontinental Hotel in October, aims to give its young designers cues on the trends shaping global fashion and more importantly, how to forecast those trends.
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The country has aspirations to evolve from a rudimentary textile economy, synonymous with the likes of Bangladesh, and graduate into the sexy design environment that epitomizes the fashion worlds in New York, London and Tokyo.
The Indian Ocean island is along a trade route between Africa and Asia and has become a leading exporter of textiles and apparel to the world. Last year, the nation exported almost $1 billion to countries such as the Britain, France, the United States and South Africa.
The fashion industry is a main pillar of Mauritius’ economy and since its genesis in the 1970s, has contributed to economic growth and attracted crucial foreign direct investment.
According to Enterprise Mauritius, the country now supplies to international brands such as Topshop, Levi’s, Zara, MANGO, Guess and Calvin Klein.
But sub-Saharan Africa’s most competitive country wants more and is beginning to punch above its weight, positioning itself as a major supplier of high-value fashion pieces.
This ambition is a familiar one. The t-shirt phase, where a significant number of poor farm workers who, rather than toil on land, accept harsh work conditions and low wages in textile and apparel factories, has been a rite of passage for nearly every rich country. Countries such as Britain, the United States, Japan and China have progressed from the t-shirt phase into broader economic development. Cambodia, Turkey, India, and Bangladesh are currently passing through this phase.
The t-shirt phase lasts only as long as there are large populations of farm workers with few options. But once the labor market has cleared, factories need to find a new competitive advantage which involves moving up the value chain and requires workers who are better skilled and better paid.
Mauritius is now at the juncture when the race to the bottom coincides with the beginning of a race to the top. What is refreshing is not only the ambitious vision, but the pragmatism that follows it. The country is certainly not a stuck-up upstart, but a keen apprentice that invited international players in the global fashion and design industry to speak and engage with students from local design institutions.
Representatives from WGSN, one of the world’s largest fashion trend forecasters with a glittering list of clients including Prada and Gucci, gave guidance on the social and cultural trends shaping design, as well as the translation of macro trends into color, textiles and product.
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French representation came in the form of Louis Gerin and Gregory Lamaud, the creative director and director respectively, of Le Garcon. The pair gave insights on the evolution of European fashion trends.
Italy had KB Design’s director, Enrico Brussa, and creative director, Flora Russo, zoned in trends for autumn and winter as well as micro trends for jackets, cut and sewn, artworks, labeling and accessories.
Inspiration also came from South Africa, a country further up the value creation chain.
Bryan Ramkhilawon, CEO of the Cape Town Fashion Council, presented a case study on the South African market’s patterns.
The students were perhaps most inspired by the youngest speaker at the event, designer Shweta Wahi, who at 22, has shown in more fashion shows than her age (23 to be exact). Wahi, the creative director of the eponymous Shweta Wahi Creations brand, advised that African designers cannot compete with the prices of the East and the style of the West, and should instead find their own niche.
The fashion event was not only about fashion education, but action too. The last evening saw the launch of the Mauritius Fashion Design Council whose efforts to develop and look after the interests of local designers were bolstered by a generous donation from Shweta Wahi Creations. A significant part will go towards sponsoring the best fashion student in 2014.
The CEO of Enterprise Mauritius, Dev Chamroo, is committed to staging more events similar to this and promised that the next Trend Forum will be bigger, better and staged abroad.
The evening was aptly concluded by a breathtaking fashion show by the international designers present at the forum, providing final inspiration to the young designers whose items will don the Made By Mauritius With Care brand and, if Sayed-Hossen has anything to do with it, will be worn all around the world.

The Fashion Contender

Mauritius has enjoyed robust growth of between 5 and 6% for decades. The country has developed from an agrarian base into a diversified middle income economy through prudent management of the economy.
Mauritius’ economy relies on four sectors: sugar; textiles; tourism and financial services. The authorities are keen to diversify the economy further towards services. One ambition is to transform the economy into an information and communications technology hub.
The Mauritian economy generated $19.28 billion and expanded by 4.1% in 2011. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) attributed this to its tight macroeconomic policies. The Washington-based lender also put the country’s good performance down to its response to the global crisis but expects the economy to drop below 4% owing to the European sovereign debt crisis.
In light of the Eurozone crisis, in January, the Minister of Finance, Xavier-Luc Duval, announced that the government is developing a contingency in case of a partial or full dissolution of the European Union. Mauritius’ economy is tied to Europe. Two-thirds of Mauritian exports go to Europe and thousands of tourists fly the other way. The Eurozone is also a major source of investment for the island.
To buffer against the Eurozone crisis, this year the government announced an expansionary budget. The focus of expenditure is infrastructure development to improve the efficiency of the economy. This is likely to boost investment.
The expansionary fiscal stance will be complemented by an expansionary monetary policy. Following the dip in growth, the Bank of Mauritius (BOM) in December 2011 cut interest rates from 5.5% to 5.4%. The BOM is likely to move towards a loosening bias in 2012 given the downward inflation profile. Consumer inflation in February fell to 4.1% year-on-year; from 4.8% a month earlier. The IMF expects inflation to be 5% year-on-year in 2012.
The European crisis has also led to a dip in tourist arrivals. Tourist arrivals remain below the one million mark. The authorities have turned their attention to Asia, where growth remains robust.
In January, Mauritius won, for the third year running, the title of World’s Leading Island Destination and the World’s Leading Beach Destination.
Despite slowing growth prospects, investors are likely to remain interested in Mauritius in their search for yield. Investors are likely to recognize that slowing growth prospects are due to exogenous factors and not as a result of economic mismanagement
The Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, a US think tank, ranked Mauritius in the world’s top 10 most economically free countries, making it the only sub-Saharan country to achieve this. The survey ranked Mauritius eighth, with a score of 77. This ranking put Mauritius ahead of G4 (US, UK, Japan and France) countries. The survey ranks 183 countries in 10 freedom categories which are then converted into an index, with 100 being the highest possible score.
In addition, Mauritius was ranked 46th out 183 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2011. Only Botswana (32) is ranked higher in Africa.

Tag: Mauritius

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