Publication: Mauritius - Enhancing and Sustaining Competitiveness : Policy Notes on Trade and Labor
Date
2010-12-03
ISSN
Published
2010-12-03
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
Mauritius is a well known successful
development story. The country's Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) per capita rose from 38 percent below the world
average in 1981 to 16 percent above the average by 2008.
Such a performance is not the fruit of luck or use of
natural advantages as it was accomplished through man-made
efforts and policy actions. The combination of (i) active
industrialization policies together with opportunistic use
of preferential trade access; and (ii) participatory
institutions that assured voice and rent redistribution
across the society ensured labor intensive growth and the
emergence of a virtuous cycle in development. Mauritius knew
what needed to be done. A National Long-Term Perspective
Study (NLTPS), also known as Vision 2020, started in 1990
and was completed in 1997. The goal of opening up and
diversifying the economy by moving towards high value-added,
skill and knowledge intensive service sectors was already
well articulated in the study - with explicit reference to
the potential of 'computer services' which today
is embedded in the Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) sector. The global crisis in 2008 was a threatening
reminder of vulnerabilities. Mauritius is structurally
vulnerable to external shocks. With a small domestic market
unable to promote or sustain production growth by itself and
a high dependence on raw materials, food and energy imports,
the country is necessarily tied to developments in the world
economy. An overarching challenge for Mauritius to achieve
the envisaged transformation towards a higher value added
economy and sustain economic growth is to improve its
productivity performance. This report focuses on two key
fundamental instruments for that: (i) trade policy and (ii)
labor policy.
Citation
“World Bank. 2010. Mauritius - Enhancing and Sustaining Competitiveness : Policy Notes on Trade and Labor. © World Bank. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/2987 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”