www.allAfrica.com Mauritius has announced plans to become the world's first duty-free island in its bid to turn the country into a tourist shopping paradise. The move is a response to a threatened collapse of textiles exports to the US under its Agoa - African Growth and Opportunity Act - liberalized trade arrangement.
Finance Minister Pravind Jugnauth this month announced the abolition of an 80-percent tax on some 1,850 different types of goods, including fabrics, clothing, electronics and jewellry.
"I announce a historic decision to make Mauritius a duty-free island," he said. "There is a national purpose for making this historic decision. It is to transform Mauritius into a shopping paradise for tourists.
"It is to create a new and unprecedented dynamism ... for investment and to take big step toward the full-employment growth path," he said, adding that the move would help improve the country's economic situation.
Unemployment on Mauritius was last calculated at 8.4 percent in September and domestic growth for 2004 was estimated at 4.2 percent with 5.7 percent inflation, according to official statistics.
Creating the "shopping paradise" will occur over four years and, along with the removal of taxes, will include incentives for local and international investors to build massive retail centres, Jugnauth said. |