Finance
There’s been a phenomenal growth of the
offshore sector in Mauritius, which now
represents 17% of the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). How fast do you think it
will continue to grow?
So far, Mauritius enjoys a solid reputation as
an international financial services hub in the
region and is building up its position within
Africa as a whole. Its enhanced efficiency,
good governance and enabling environment
conducive to doing business have all aided in
this process.
African investment and trade flows are
now increasingly significant. Mauritius is
wonderfully situated to benefit from some of
these flows particularly from so called SouthSouth investment.
But is there a threat to the sector amid the
continuing uncertainties surrounding the
Doub le Taxation Avoidance Agreement
(DTAA) with India?
It is important to keep in mind that the
DTAA is the cherry on the cake, not the cake
itself; it is not the sole reason to do business.
And, with the re-alignment of agreements
across the world, Mauritius will have to
develop an edge.
I look at the Mauritius-India relationship in
geopolitical terms, not just in terms of the
DTAA, for this link is much broader than that
and Mauritius is quite important for India.
India wants a big say in what’s happening in
the Indian Ocean region and in East Africa.
As such, the DTAA was not signed solely for
investments into India, it was also signed for
facilitating Indian investments into Africa.
That was the core base of the DTAA.
The world is not static and the financial
services sector will face many challenges in
the years to come, especially with regard to
the implementation of the General AntiAvoidance Rules (GAAR). But as long as
Mauritius remains competitive and continues
to build upon its operational strengths, we can
all be confident.
The key is to strive towards diversifying core
markets and products offerings.
Can we not exploit the potential of our
efforts on treaties with African countries?
Is the DTAA with India that important to
Mauritius?
The financial services sector is dependent
upon a significant volume of international
business which uses Mauritius as an
international financial centre. And we
can definitely take advantage of the added
opportunities presented by the positive
changes in the regulatory landscape.
Now, a substantial amount of time is devoted
LUXURY MAURITIUS
to capitalising on tapping into business
opportunities in Africa, as Mauritius
continues to step up efforts to become the
gateway of choice for investments there. There
will be a different set of challenges to be faced
and opportunities to be captured following
the inclusion of the Limitation of Benefits
“LOB” clause in the Indian treaty.
Are your clients nervous about this?
As a matter of fact, no! We opened our
whole, I am extremely satisfied and feel that
Mauritius, as a jurisdiction, will do extremely
well over the next decades.
What are your plans for the future?
We are continuing our strategy of creating a
broader global footprint to better serve our
clients across the world. We’ll keep Mauritius
as a cost-effective and efficient base for all of
our operations.
We are also repositioning ourselves to
“AS LONG AS MAURITIUS REMAINS
COMPETITIVE AND CONTINUES TO BUILD
UPON ITS OPERATIONAL STRENGTHS, WE
CAN ALL BE CONFIDENT”
Singapore office thinking some might want to
move their business there, but not one client
has left us to go to Singapore!
And, when we acquired the books of Ernst
and Young and Arthur Andersen, two of
the biggest financial institutions in the
world, we noticed their clients only wanted
to invest in India. We also believe that the
Indian Government would not deliberately
want to deprive themselves of foreign direct
investments.
better take advantage of the wider range of
opportunities which will emerge from the
Power-Africa and other US-Africa Business
Forum initiatives.
Basically, we have positioned ourselves to be a
specialist one-stop shop in a number of areas.
We want to become an outsourcing hub for
international clients and offer them an array
of professional services: legal and tax advice,
asset management, corporate advisory, HRrelated services and e-commerce platform.
But your Singapore venture has been
successful, hasn’t it?
Our Singapore office remains competitive
and is expanding fast. Singapore has
developed into an excellent financial centre
in Asia. It is competing fiercely with other
thriving Asian economies and is now seen
as the gateway to Asia.
Clients can register their companies in
Singapore, through our offices, in a much
more cost-effective manner given that
some of the back office work can be done
in Mauritius, serviced by our pool of highly
qualified and experienced professionals using
our leading technology platform.
What about human resources? Is it difficult
to find the right people to work in this
sector?
Mauritius has a pool of highly qualified,
talented and hardworking professionals –
accountants, lawyers and financial analysts.
My advice is that after they have gone through
university, graduates should spend a few
years abroad, for an international exposure.
This will help them think out of the box and
develop a more proactive work ethic. On the
28
33, Edith Cavell Street,
Port Louis, Mauritius
T+230 212 9800
[email protected]
www.cimglobalbusiness.com