Stakeholders of the Public-Private Joint Committee met, for the third time, on Friday afternoon, at the Hennessy Park Hotel, in Ebène, since the presentation of Budget 2021-2022, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy.
The Financial Secretary, Mr Dharam Dev Manraj, the Chief Executive Officer of the Economic Development Board (EDB), Mr Ken Poonoosamy, and other key representatives of the private sector and public institutions participated in the interactive session.
In his concluding remarks, the finance minister recalled that this event, an initiative of the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development in collaboration with the EDB, was in line with Government’s strategic vision to strengthen public-private dialogue with regard to COVID-19 challenges impacting the various sectors of the economy as well as to provide an effective and collaborative platform to address the challenges and tap into new opportunities.
Furthermore, Dr Padayachy highlighted that this meeting was very important to review what was done through different committees and examine proposals so as to adopt and integrate these measures in the forthcoming budget with the objective of furthering the economic recovery in 2022. “Measures discussed today pertained to the reopening of borders, taxation, revenues, and attraction of skilled labour, among others,” he added.
The Minister underlined that the challenges over the last two years and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic must be taken into consideration. On this score, he outlined that the number of tourists visiting Mauritius went down from some four million to 308 000 in 2020, and 176 000 in 2021; the average economic growth of almost 4% in the last ten years before the crisis declined by 15% in 2020 and slightly recovered above 4% in 2021; and there was a loss of about Rs 140 billion regarding exports of goods and services over the last two years.
Dr Padayachy emphasised that the economy of almost all countries around the world had bounced back and was already at the level before the crisis, contrary to Mauritius, due namely to the difficulties faced by the tourism sector, and the inclusion of the country on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring and the European Union’s list of high-risk third countries, as regards the financial sector.
On this score, he reiterated the importance of boosting a powerful synergy between Government and the private sector so that both the financial and tourism sectors recover and bring the country back on track. “Tourism will be crucial, not only for our economic recovery, but also for the future of our country”, he said.
The Finance Minister expressed confidence that all concerned stakeholders would work together to accelerate the pace of economic recovery and build resilience to sustain the long-term growth of the economy as well as contradict the predictions of some international institutions as regards the medium and long terms economic growth perspective of the country.
Dr Padayachy also launched a digital platform, mauritiusbudget.com, in the context of the preparation of the National Budget 2022-2023, where proposals from Business and Trade Associations, Professional Bodies, Trade Unions, Non-Governmental Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, other stakeholders and the public at large, could be submitted, up to 31 March 2022. “During this period,” he underlined, “we will also have the pre-budget consultations with all concerned actors.”
He stressed that the goal of his Ministry was to find the right trade-off between expenditures and revenues; between policies, taxes and the measures that would be implemented, in particular with the challenges following the war in Ukraine. “This crisis,” Minister Padayachy underscored, “will have much repercussions on morals, prices, confidence and on the movement of people and investors as well.” “Hence, as a responsible Government, it is imperative that we prepare ourselves to face it”, he concluded.
