Africa-Press – Mauritius. The next African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum is scheduled from 02 to 04 November 2023 in Johannesburg and this will provide visibility on the future course of action to be adopted by Mauritius as regards the lapse of AGOA in September 2025.
This announcement was made by the Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, today, during a press conference, held at the seat of the Ministry in Port-Louis.
The Minister indicated that he led a delegation to the United States in the context of the promotion of Mauritian Textile and Apparel products and consolidation of trade relations from 02 to 08 August 2023 during which he also had pre-consultation meetings with key stakeholders in Washington on the long-term renewal of the AGOA.
On the international front, he observed that Mauritius as an outward looking and export-oriented economy is highly dependent on the economic performance of its trading partners to sustain industrial growth.
According to latest estimates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on World Economic Outlook for July 2023, he stated that the global real GDP growth rate is projected to reach 3.0 percent in 2023 as compared to 3.5 percent in 2022.
Minister Bholah highlighted that the global economy is gradually recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict but inflationary pressures, as a result of tighter monetary policies, will continue to impact on purchasing power and bring about the lower global economic growth in 2023.
As far as our main export markets are concerned, the economic situation appears to be improving as per forecasts of IMF, he remarked. As regards the performance of the Export-Oriented Enterprises (EOE) Sector from January to June 2023, he underlined that EOE exports stood at around Rs 24 billion as compared to Rs 23.4 billion during the corresponding period in 2022 thus representing an increase of 2.4%.
He added that South Africa (14%) is still our leading export destination followed by France (13%), United Kingdom (13%) and USA (10%). According to him, these statistics show that the support schemes put by the Government to enhance the competitiveness of the export sector are contributing favourably.
These schemes include: Freight Rebate Scheme; Support for Trade Promotion and Marketing Scheme; Export Credit Guarantee Insurance Scheme; Africa Warehousing Scheme in Tanzania; Participation in International Fairs SMEs Refund Scheme.
With regard to major activities by the Industrial Development Division, Minister Bholah stressed that the Ministry is currently implementing the “Manufacturing 4.0” Project with the assistance of the Commonwealth Secretariat to support manufacturing enterprises to adopt advanced technologies. The project is being implemented in three phases and phase two is expected to start as from September 2023, he added.
The Ministry, he remarked, has also received financial assistance of the Global Environmental Facility and technical support of the United Nations Environment Programme to implement the project on “Accelerating the Greening of the Manufacturing Sector for a Sustainable Mauritius” over a period of five years.
The main objectives are to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, reduce dependency on fossil fuels and encourage the adoption of sustainable/circularity practices at enterprise level for greater productivity and competitiveness, he observed.
He also spoke of the Energy Efficiency Audit Scheme for the manufacturing sector whereby Government will subsidise 75% of energy audit cost to be carried out by registered energy auditors. An amount of Rs 6 million has been earmarked under this scheme for a period of two years, he said.
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