Think Mauritius

According to the Sugar Protocol, which is one of the components of the Lomé Convention signed in 1975 between the European Union and the ACP countries, each year the EU can import 1.3 million tons of sugar from the ACP countries at a relatively high price. While the Lomé Convention itself was set to expire in the year 2000, the Sugar Protocol contained terms and conditions that allowed price re-negotiation during this term.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks of 1992-1994, known as the Uruguay Round, established a 10-year phase-out of quotas for all categories of textiles and apparel.

(Read on …)

Le titre de l’article est un non-sens. Soit les horaires sont difficiles ou soit les honoraires ne sont pas exorbitants. Mais pas horaires exorbitants. Je ne sais pas qui a édité l’article. Ce n’est même pas une coquille, c’est une connerie. :) Voir plus.

The World Bank has recently published an extensive report on doing business in 2006 worldwide (PDF). Mauritius ranked 23rd globally out of 155 countries for the ease of doing business and beating some OECD countries.

Top 30 countries where it is easier to do business:

1. New Zealand
2. Singapore
3. United States
4. Canada
5. Norway
6. Australia
7. Hong Kong (China)
8. Denmark
9. United Kingdom
10. Japan
11. Ireland
12. Iceland
13. Finland
14. Sweden
15. Lithuania
16. Estonia
17. Switzerland
18. Belgium
19. Germany
20. Thailand
21. Malaysia
22. Puerto Rico
23. Mauritius
24. Netherlands
25. Chile
26. Latvia
27. South Korea
28. South Africa
29. Israel
30. Spain

Here are some excerpts:

If you were opening a new business in Lao PDR,the start-up procedures would take 198 days. If you were opening one in Syria, you would have to put up$61,000 in minimum capital—51 times average annual income. If you were building a warehouse in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the fees for utility hook-up and compliance with building regulations would amount to 87 times average income. And if you ran a business in Guatemala, it would take you 1,459 days to resolve a simple dispute in the courts. If you were paying all business taxes in Sierra Leone, they would take 164% of your company’s gross profit.

…

It is not only rich countries that achieve the right balance between safety and costs. Mauritius is among the easiest countries in which to build a warhouse. And it has the same low rate of construction accidents as Hong Kong (China). Construction licenses are just one type of business license. Here they are used as the starting point for the discussion of licensing because construction is among the largest sectors in every economy.

The report contains very-hard-to-get data on countries worldwide. However, the report does not say that, in Mauritius, one does not need a license whatsoever to become a “marchand ambulant” (hawker), start selling on the streets and does not declare any revenue to the tax authorities. C’est la vie!

You are the brightest minds in the country. Your pictures are on the frontpages of newspapers. You receive congratulations from everybody: your family and friends; your teachers and rector; ministers; and even strangers who recognise you on the street. Your country has faith in you and sends you abroad to study in glamorous universities.

You study Computer Science, Law, and even fanciful disciplines, such as Nuclear Engineering. For the next 3-4 years, your tuition fees, accommodation, pocket money, and annual return air tickets are all paid for. Your parents even get to attend your graduation ceremony. Yet, despite all this, you choose not to come back home.

Millions are spent on scholarships every year, yet the return on investment still remains to be seen. Of the laureates and scholars who, backed by these grants, head abroad for university studies, 99% do not return to Mauritius to repay their benefactors. They either remain in their host countries, or emigrate to other ones. Mauritius does not seem to be on their lists. Even the bonds signed by their parents are ineffective at bringing them back. Thus is the brain drain that afflicts Mauritius.

Why does the government still tolerate this ingratitude? Many argue that the funds spent on grants would be better spent on improving our own educational system, starting with the University of Mauritius. And, they would be right in the light of the open admission from laureates about their intention not to return to Mauritius after their studies.

Please post your comments if you agree with me or not.

Two finds in l’Express worthy of mention here:

L’Express Outlook reports the upcoming Masturbate-a-thon — yes, that exists — due to take place in Clerkenwell, London, this week-end. I commute through Clerkenwell everyday, and was naturally intrigued. But, I am also curious what made the editors think that the event would interest the majority of its readers, who are based more than 6000 miles from the venue.

The other find is the piece about an Iraqi woman’s blog adapted into a play that is to be presented at the Ediburgh Fringe Arts Festival. In the past, we have seen Belle de Jour, the blog-diary of a London call-girl, turned into a successful book deal. The obvious question that comes to mind is, how long before a movie that is inspired from a blog? Or, has it been done already?