Editorial

Dear Valued Readers,

This year, which ends tomorrow, has been a good year for Mauritius from the export perspective both in terms of total exports in general, and for the Export Oriented Enterprises (EOE) in particular, the latter registering a growth of 11% to reach a new record of MUR 43 Bn. In parallel, the export oriented services sector also registered a sustained and healthy growth this year. The main economic clusters of the manufacturing sector, namely apparel and clothing, seafood, watches and clocks, jewellery, optical, agro and agri products, showed resilience, vigour and robustness. UK, France and USA still remain our main markets whilst South Africa and Madagascar recorded substantial growth. The outlook for 2012 for exports of Mauritian goods and services is positive. The profound optimism stands firm.

To sustain this positive growth, Enterprise Mauritius has, in consultation with its stakeholders and clients, established an ambitious promotion and marketing strategy for 2012. A strategy which is premised on:

1. Exporting more to our traditional markets, and
2. Opening up new markets for our products and services

This, in turn, shall entail strengthening of our supply side of the equation with specific emphasis on our exporters and product portfolio. Our main aim is to work towards expanding both areas. In this context, targeted actions have been planned to connect our exporters to new buyers in our traditional as well as emerging markets with focus on one-to-one meetings in the style of Contact Promotion Programmes. To this effect, Enterprise Mauritius will expand its network of Liaison Officers in key markets with the appointment of Representatives in the USA, South Africa and Tanzania. For our new exporters, including first time exporters, we have programmed a series of Market Testing and Buyers Sellers Meetings in selected countries. In this respect, special attention will be given to our SMEs in enhancing their export readiness. A dedicated Advisory Cell has been created at Enterprise Mauritius to provide hands- on facilitation services to the exporter community.

Our promotion and marketing actions for 2012 will include two innovations, viz:-

• Three mega marketing projects in the style of ‘Mauritius Week’ in Mumbai (February), Russia (June) and France (September) will be organised in collaboration with the Board of Investment (BOI) and the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA)
• Three national level events namely:-
  1. The India-Africa Business Leaders Summit in May in association with All India Management Association (AIMA)
  2. The Mauritius International Trade Fair in July
  3. A Light Engineering Forum in September in collaboration with Pakistan and Belgium

Enterprise Mauritius, thus undertakes to provide a comprehensive three-dimensional support service to the entire exporter community encompassing market development, product development and enterprise development. We look forward to 2012 with a lot of enthusiasm and optimism.

On the eve of the New Year, the management and staff of Enterprise Mauritius join me to thank our valued readers, our stakeholders and clients for their continuous support. We wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year 2012.

We look forward to deepening our collaboration in 2012.

Dev Chamroo
Chief Executive Officer