Mauritius wants to get out of EU tax haven blacklist
Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – Mauritian Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade minister, Mr Nandcoomar Bodha, on Thursday said the Government is working arduously to take Mauritius out of the European Union tax haven blacklist (EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions) at the earliest.
Speaking at the 171st annual general meeting of the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) in Port Louis, Mr Bodha indicated a Mauritian technical team has been mandated to interface via video-conference with a technical team from the Elysée Palace, France, at the request of the French President, Mr Emmanuel Macron, to work on the five deficiencies that are left so that Mauritius becomes fully compliant with the Financial Action Task Force regulations.
Accordingly, eight experts from the EU will be in Mauritius in August 2020 to help the country on the five sub-committees working on those five deficiencies, he announced.
Furthermore, Mr Bodha elaborated on the ongoing negotiations pertaining to the Free Trade Agreement with India which is expected to be concluded soon; regional cooperation and regional markets, and the Mauritius Africa Strategy, and the importance of air and maritime connectivity.
For his part, Finance, Economic Planning and Development minister, Renganaden Padayachy said that more than ever Government is turned towards the development of a business ecosystem in Mauritius.
“The global health crisis has played the role of accelerator in the process of decision-making for these decisions to be efficient”, he said.
“Business as usual is no longer an option and Government has had to set priorities and therefore the current situation could be taken as an opportunity to accelerate the transition of the Mauritian economy.”
Meanwhhile, Business and Cooperatives minister Sunil Bholah emphasised that the need of the hour amid the Covid-19 pandemic calls for a fundamental shift in the country’s traditional methods of production.
“This global health crisis has demonstrated that agility, flexibility and automation are sine qua non conditions to ensure survival and technology can be a powerful enabler”, he said.
He urged members of the business community to adopt exponential disruptive technologies associated with Industry 4.0 such as Artificial Intelligence, Soft Robotics, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and Virtual Augmented Reality.
-0-PANA NA/AR 23July 2020
