Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Mauritius Investment Corporation Ltd (MIC), a private limited company fully owned by the Bank of Mauritius (BoM), has, from its creation to date, already approved financing facilities amounting to more than Rs 30 billion. The companies which benefitted from MIC’s assistance represent more than 30,000 direct jobs and 90,000 indirect jobs.
The Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, made this statement, today, in the National Assembly, in reply to a Private Notice Question pertaining to the disbursements effected to date by the MIC and the approved applications for financing.
Dr Padayachy highlighted that, according to its constitution, the main objectives of the MIC are to help systemic and viable companies or enterprises that have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, to support and accelerate the development of Mauritius, to generate income, and to constitute a savings base for Mauritian citizens.
He underlined that the entity has independent directors and its own Investment Committee adding that all of the decisions taken by the MIC are done in accordance with the highest standards of transparency and good governance, hence the importance of the members who constitute its Board of Directors.
The MIC’s investment charter and investment policy documents, he pointed out, will be made public shortly through the publication of the BoM’s annual report. The Finance Minister further underscored that there are well-established procedures for the approval, disbursement, and monitoring of disbursed funds and informed that these procedures are in the public domain and accessible on the MIC’s website.
Speaking about the processing of requests, Dr Padayachy outlined that requests for funds are subject to an evaluation exercise before being submitted to the independent Investment Committee of the MIC. It is up to the Investment Committee to make recommendations to the Board of Directors and those recommendations may or may not be positive. The Board of Directors then decides to approve or reject the requests, he stated.
Moreover, he underlined that, in accordance with the provisions of the Bank of Mauritius Act and the Banking Act, confidential information cannot be disclosed without a court order on transactions between private entities. However, the MIC has a website which provides real-time information on the number of approved fund requests and the amount disbursed by sector of activity, he added.
Dr Padayachy also informed that in some cases, requests for funds are made by companies listed on the Mauritius Stock Exchange and added that these companies are subject to the listing rule of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius and therefore have a duty to communicate to the public the financial assistance they have benefited from the MIC. He however pointed out that as private companies are not subject to the same rules, the MIC cannot therefore disclose confidential information pertaining to them.
