Mauritius is at the 13th position in the ‘Ease of doing business’ ranking
Mauritius has been an ideal location for entrepreneurs, companies and individuals to establish themselves in or to build a business for quite some time and there are several reasons behind this. For instance, the island is located at a strategic position which allows you to engage in useful cross-border investments. Moreover, firms can benefit from various regulations that have been put in place specifically to facilitate operations and businesses can benefit from workers who are extremely fluent in both English and French. Let us not forget the sunny beaches, picturesque landscape and a living environment which is safe and equipped with the latest technologies. Mauritius: its positions among the rankings The factors mentioned above, and several others, have led to Mauritius moving up in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings. In a report released in October, the island was ranked at the 13th position out of the 190 countries analysed; it was previously at 20. This is Mauritius’s best performance ever since it was first included in the report in 2006. The latest study demonstrates how rapidly Mauritius is improving its infrastructure and other features to facilitate things for companies. Just as recently as 2016, it was ranked 49th. Additionally, it topped African countries, ahead of Rwanda (38th) and Kenya (56th) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Among the ‘upper middle-income’ category, it was second. Reforms that have led to this growth The latest report of the World Bank demonstrates that Mauritius is set to improving itself as a jurisdiction conducive to doing business and to modernising the economy through structural reforms. Some of these are automation of public services, reviewing of licensing procedures and regulatory amendments through the Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2017 and the Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2019 in line with international best practices. Moreover, the time needed to register property has dropped more than 12-fold while that for business incorporation has also dropped nearly 10 times The World Bank’s index measures the ‘ease of doing business’ against 10 different indicators including paying taxes, starting a business, enforcing contracts, registering property and accessing credit. The institution recognised improvements in seven of these indicators for Mauritius. It is now among the top 10 countries in the ‘Paying Taxes’ and ‘Dealing with Construction Permits’ indicators. What does this imply on a global scale? Mauritius’s ease of doing business score has now grown to 81.5. This reduces the gap with the benchmark which is New Zealand with a score of 86.8. Besides Mauritius, both Togo and Nigeria’s performance enhanced. They were named in the top ten ‘most improved’ countries. Nations in the Middle East and North African regions were among the strongest in ushering in business-friendly reforms. However, they remain among the most difficult locations for gaining access to credit. According to the World Bank, “An entrepreneur’s experience differs wildly in high and low-performing economies. For example, it takes nearly six times as long, on average, to start a business in the economies ranked in the bottom 50 than in economies ranked in the top 20. Transferring property in the 20 top economies requires less than two weeks, compared to three months in the bottom 50”. As such, Mauritius is a strategic location to establish a business.
