Mauritius
The island country placed 52nd on the list to become Africa’s best economy. It lies in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. The volcanic main island of Mauritius is ringed by coral reefs; there are also several smaller islands. Mauritius has become a tourist mainstay on the continent and tourism has been a key factor in its development.
On Mauritius, this is what the report said: It is “the regional leader in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a global score of 64.3 and rank of 52nd. The country has improved its performance by 0.6 points; however, overcome by other faster-evolving economies, it has lost three places in the rankings. Mauritius is well-positioned in terms of institutional quality (64.7, 29th), with relatively high security standards (41st) in the regional context, developed social capital (21st), strong corporate governance (14th) and relatively strong commitment to sustainability (28th). At the same time Mauritius has further upgraded its infrastructure (+0.7 points, 64th) and ICT adoption (+6.2, 43rd), and is one of the most open countries in the world (64.5, 6th), conditions that provide excellent basic conditions to do business. However, this progress has been counterbalanced by a slight decrease in terms of macroeconomic stability (-0.6 points, 57th), led by increasing public debt, and lower education attainment (school life expectancy is at 15 years, 0.5 points lower than the latest assessment). At the same time, the labour market remains somewhat rigid (52.1, 113th) and does not fully match pay and productivity (50.0, 68th), limiting talent development. The slow accumulation of human capital combined with low innovation capability (38.1, 70th), may explain why Mauritius has not yet evolved into an innovation-led economy. Investment in research & development is insufficient (95th), and less capitalintensive aspects (i.e. university-companies collaboration, 38.3, 106th) are limited, stifling the realization of a functioning innovation ecosystem.”
