Juristconsult is organizing a summit this November with ‘Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)’ as its main theme. Marc R. M. Hein and Nicolas Richard from Juristconsult Chambers were in front of the press yesterday to talk about this upcoming summit, which will take place on November 09, 2023 at Andrea Lodges. According to Marc Hein, after the success of the 2022 summit, it was time for a second one, a way of opening Mauritius up to the outside world. “We opted for the ESG theme,” he announced. It’s important to realize that this is the only summit on investment and ESG to be held in the wild.
The summit will be opened by the Governor of the Bank of Mauritius, Mr Harvesh Seegoolam, and closed by the Minister of Financial Services. The topics covered are very broad but will dwell on social and governance issues. Today, the investing company already has an internal policy linked to social issues, Good Governance also includes meritocracy and transparency. This policy applies to the public, private and para-statal sectors. The influence of ESG on investments is increasingly important. Some large funds refuse to invest in countries that do not meet ESG criteria.
With Juristconsult’s membership of the DLA Piper Africa network, this summit will have a regional and international dimension. According to Marc Hein, many of their clients are international institutional investors who have been investing in Mauritius for many years and place great importance on ESG, and for them, social is more important than financial return. Nowadays, institutional investors will come up with their own standards that they intend to implement in the companies that are structured in Mauritius to invest in Africa. There’s a gap between Africa, even Mauritius, and European countries in this area. We need to lay the foundations to raise awareness among our customers and the companies that use Mauritian jurisdiction so that they can adapt to this reality. In Africa, the social aspect is becoming more important than the environmental aspect.
Nicolas Richard spoke about the summit’s program. Discussions will revolve around several themes, including ESG Integration in Wealth Management, and Profitable and Responsible Investing. Wealth Management must consider the entire ESG dimension because we’re not just looking at profit.
Another topic will be Impact Investing, with an emphasis on Responsible Investing.
Another topic will be Fintech, which must consider CSG. The impact of FinTech on its activities.
Data processing is an important topic that will be addressed. All the data that operators collect on us is a governance issue. There is also personal data that is collected by institutions, and operators who have access to this information believe that the most important thing is to inspire trust.
Stakeholders will be discussing how to make contracts with conditions that can put an end to internal disputes without going to deadlock or court. We now speak of ‘Dispute Avoidance’. Companies must be able to operate even if shareholders disagree. We want to prevent disputes by including clauses in contracts that will guard against this eventuality.
As far as the Mauritian financial center is concerned, we mustn’t rest on our laurels. We need to keep the companies that have come through Mauritius and prepare for the future,” says Nicolas Richard.
According to Marc Hein, instead of talking about Mauritius IFC, we should have added the Corporate and Administrative Centre. A lot of what we’re doing relates to work in Corporate and Administration. We’re going to try to think about how we’re going to evolve between now and 2025, what our vision is for the future, how we can absorb these young people who are leaving school… The summit is aimed at this whole workforce and giving hope to young people who are thinking of leaving the country.
The Investment Summit is our contribution to promoting investment in Mauritius,” concludes Nicolas Richard.
