   |
|
afrol News, 15 May - A Public Expenditure Reform Loan worth US$ 40 million has recently been approved for Mauritius. The Indian Ocean island state has the second highest income per capita in Africa, but receives significant World Bank support for its economic development and reform, just for being a success story. Last week, the World Bank approved the US$ 40 million loan and discussed the Bank's Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for the country. Building on a strong national consensus and institutions, the Mauritian economy has developed sugar production, textiles and industry, enabling GDP per capita to progress from US$ 260 at independence in 1968 to US$ 3,800 today. The Country Assistance Strategy, which lays out Bank assistance for the forthcoming years, "was elaborated with the government in close consultation with a wide variety of representatives of Mauritian society," the World Bank reports today. "This CAS replaces the previous one, which was produced in 1997." It indicates that the World Bank would provide long term support for the government's development policy and economic reform. The Bank has supported development in Mauritius with 34 operations since independence and there are three operations ongoing, concerning the environment and the financial sector. The Public Expenditure Reform Loan (PERL), on the other hand, is a single-tranche loan that will assist the government in the first year of implementation of the government's development policy. "Activities concentrate on improving competitiveness, bringing about deeper social development and social cohesion and protecting the environment." The PERL is expected to enable timely financial and technical support to complement the government's own and other foreign sources for the development policy. Mauritius has good access to international capital markets. The greatest challenge highlighted in the government's development policy and supported by the CAS is education: Mauritius' goals are for education to reach all individuals including currently underprivileged groups, offer equal opportunities, be adapted to the labor market, and be of more equal quality. Education is seen as the key both to maintaining social harmony, raising all Mauritian living standards, and transforming the economy further towards a high-tech services and knowledge economy, competitive with eastern neighbors in Asia. The policy also includes plans to deepen social development and cohesion by rendering social assistance more efficient at reaching the poorest, and more financially sustainable. Finally, the social objective will be achieved by improving healthcare, and ensuring it too, is financially sustainable. Increased economic activity and higher levels of tourism are foreseen to have an impact on the environment: the amount of waste the island can sustain is limited and the one million tourists Mauritius receives each year is putting pressure on the environment. The government has prepared a national action plan for the environment, which is an integral part of its development policy. The World Bank is already involved with a sanitation/sewerage and solid waste disposal project, and via green grants by the Global Environment Facility and environmental operations at a regional level. The CAS notes that Mauritius' success over the past 20 years "can be attributed to the social cohesion it has achieved in favor of growth, the strength of its institutions, the effectiveness of its implementation and governance, a reliable and independent judiciary." The World Bank says this has enabled it "to adapt fully to and take advantage of export opportunities in sugar and textiles, building on solid trade relations with high-income markets in Europe and the US, to diversify rapidly and successfully into industry, attracting investment, using a whole array of administrative instruments including Export Processing Zones (EPZs), targeted commercial policies, etc." World Bank Resident Country Director for Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles & Comoros, Hafez Ghanem, says "Today, the country is at a crossroads, in terms of eliminating the final pockets of poverty, and equipping its entire population with the needed education and skills for the modern service economy it intends to build." There is strong consensus to further reduce poverty and prevent social exclusion, to correct inequities in the education system, and fight unemployment by endowing Mauritians with the skills needed for a modern economy. In addition, Mauritius has strong ties with the African continent notably by investing there and developing trade and industrial relations. Ghanem further noted that "the country is also proof of what can be achieved in Africa given strong political commitment and investment in people and the economy."
|
