Ghana, Mauritius Explore Investment Synergy

While Ghana has vast tracts of land, a large population and mineral resources, Mauritius has carved a niche for itself as the hub in international trade with Europe, the Americas and Asia.

With only 1.3 million people tucked away on a small island next to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius has infrastructure, a highly skilled and educated workforce, a buoyant manufacturing hub, runs a virtually free port for imports and exports, with low cost of doing business.

These strengths, officials of Mauritius said, they were ready to put at the disposal of Ghana’s private sector for foreign direct investment, while that country’s private sector will export to Ghana or make reciprocal direct investments.

The Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Mauritius, Mr Dev Chamroo, and leader of a 42-member delegation which visited the country last week, told the that trade between the two countries had seen a nose dive, which they were interested in reversing.

Members of the delegation, which also held buyer-seller match-making meetings and a solo-exhibition, said they were interested in the power sector, especially renewable energy such as solar, sugar production, waste management, financial services industry, education and tourism, as well as general manufacturing.

They met with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), the Association of Ghana Industries, the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and some corporate institutions. Mauritius used to export about $6 million worth of goods to Ghana but this figure reduced to $1.5 million last year, with Ghana exporting less than $1 million to that country.

Mr Chamroo said that the reduction in exports to Ghana was mainly because it invested directly into Ghana to locally produce the steel and galvanised steel that it used to export here, adding that the private sector was particularly interested in investing more in Ghana.

Already a Mauritian company, Global Board of Trade (GBOT), is partnering with the banking and financial services industry in the country to put commodities, stocks and the local currency on an international platform for live trading.

Another member of the delegation, a textiles manufacturer, also confirmed to the Daily Graphic that it wanted to immediately return to start the process of setting up shop to produce in the country and take advantage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to export to the United States, quota and duty free.

Mauritius, which exported about $6 billion worth of goods and services to the world last year, with about $1 billion coming to Africa, wants to increase Africa’s share of its exports as well as the general investment of its private sector in Africa Union member countries.

The leader of the Mauritius trade delegation said Ghana’s private sector players, as well as those of other African countries, could take advantage of the small Indian-Ocean country’s triangular synergies of connecting to Europe, Asia, especially India, and Africa easily to expand the scope of the sector.

 “We are not looking for public-sector partnerships – we leave that for our diplomatic and political leaders to do. We are looking at purely private-sector partnerships, which are the wheels of growth,” Mr Chamroo stressed.

Enterprise Mauritius also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the GIPC to provide a practical framework for stronger relations between the two countries and guidelines for the operation of investors in the country. The areas of focus would include the services sector, health, tourism, education and Information Communication Technology (ICT).

The Mauritian Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Azad Dhomun, observed that Ghana was among the growing power houses of Africa and thus a preferred investment destination. He explained that the delegation would use the pact to boost trade as well as strengthen exports of goods and services between the two countries.

GIPC signs MoU with Enterprise Mauritius

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and Enterprise Mauritius have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate in capacity building and investment in both countries.

The initiative, which is aimed at building the bond between the two countries, will also explore synergies to their mutual benefit.

Mrs Mawuena Trebarh signed on behalf of GIPC as the CEO, while Mr Ken Poonoosamy signed for the Mauritius Board of Investments as the Managing Director at the 2013 Mauritius Ghana International Trade and Investment forum held in Accra last Thursday.

The session, which was organised by the Board of Investment and Enterprise Mauritius, brought about 40 entrepreneurs from Mauritius to Ghana.

It featured Mauritian entrepreneurs looking for investment opportunities in Ghana in all priority sectors including joint venture collaboration, strategic alliances, franchising and project financing.

Speaking at the forum, Mr Dev Chamroo, Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Mauritius, the apex Investment and Trade Promotion agencies of Mauritius said the forum would provide entrepreneurs from the two countries the opportunity to share experience on investment or join hands in investment promotion that would allow Ghanaians to look at Mauritius especially the 26 countries that they could reach from the country.

Mauritius, he said, had expertise in education and medicine, adding that the country had also diversified its industrial base over time to sea food processing and other products.

For her part, Mrs Trebarh said the collaboration between entrepreneurs in both countries would promote their development.