Abstract
Despite the severity of the global financial and economic crisis of 2007, Mauritius did not sink into a recession. The question therefore is how did Mauritius withstand the global crisis? In part, the country was fairly resilient due to the nature of its economy, underpinned by an effective economic transformation and solid policies in place prior to the crisis. These policies and structural economic transformation have shielded the country against the severe ramifications of the crisis. A shortfall facing many African countries, particularly as African leaders have very recently gathered to moving forward on a continental free trade area, and on their agenda, is how to embark and successfully transform their economies. There are therefore important lessons that can be drawn from Mauritius. The aims of this chapter are therefore to first explore the process and sources of economic transformation and second, moving forward, offer some key policy prescriptions for Africa drawn from Development and Sustainable Growth of Mauritius. Ultimately, Africans are responsible for their development and growth path and it is within the grasp of African nations to transform themselves into an upper middle-income status.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See Breisinger and Diao (2008) for a comprehensive analysis.
- 3.
For further discussions, see Schumpeter (1947). In this seminal piece, Schumpeter indicates that entrepreneurs contribute significantly to the transformation through a process of ‘creative destruction’.
- 4.
Since the island’s independence, two political dynasties—the Ramgoolam and the Jugnauth families—have dominated Mauritian politics.
- 5.
Although the level of corruption is low in Mauritius, the country has recently experienced several acts of corruption at various levels involving high-profile politicians including ministers. Famous corruption cases include the British American Insurance Mauritius and Betamax case. In the wake of combating corruption, the Mauritian government has introduced a novel legislation in the Good Governance and Integrity Reporting Act. See Roopanand Amar Mahadew (2017) Statute Law Review article.
- 6.
See Atta-Mensah (2017).
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Atta-Mensah, J., Tang, V.T., Shaw, T.M. (2019). Towards Economic Transformation: The Way Forward for Africa. In: Tang, V., Shaw, T., Holden, M. (eds) Development and Sustainable Growth of Mauritius. Contemporary African Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96166-8_10
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