Mauritius : Online Database to Facilitate Circular Migration

The Mauritius Circular Migration Database (MCMD), an online job matching tool designed to match labour supply with the demand of foreign employers is operational since January 5, 2010. Developed jointly by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Government of Mauritius, MCMD aims at registering Mauritians interested in temporary employment abroad and enabling employers to make online selection of candidates who best suit their desired profile.

MCMD can be accessed by logging on the site www.myjob.mu and it provides a permanent database that offers a pool of potential employees with a variety of qualifications, skills, experience and interests. The tool serves to expedite the selection process, reduce overall costs and time thereby making recruitment in Mauritius more competitive and cost effective.

The National Empowerment Foundation, the implementing agency for Mauritius, will work in collaboration with the IOM to develop coherent circular migration projects in Mauritius which will be beneficial for both origin and destination countries in terms of a two-fold objective: providing temporary well trained labour on the international market and enabling the Mauritian workforce to benefit from professional experience in a new work environment.

With people going to work abroad, not only does the receiving country benefit from the labour and the skills of the worker, but the worker also wins in terms of experience and more interesting salary than in the home country. Moreover, the sending country benefits in terms of the skills acquired by the workers and the remittances of the latter which may be used either for the betterment of the standard of living of the family or for the setting up of enterprises in the home country.

So far, the IOM and the Government have operated several labour migration projects with Canada, namely in the food processing and cleaning companies and over 250 Mauritians have been recruited. Moreover, in 2008, some 418 Mauritians were placed abroad through private local recruitment agencies, duly licensed by the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment, to place Mauritians in employment abroad and in 2009, some 636 Mauritians proceeded abroad.

Other initiatives taken by the Government as regards circular migration is the signing of an agreement with France in September 2008. Once the agreement is ratified by the French National Assembly, this is expected in mid 2010, some 500 skilled Mauritian workers could be granted 15 months visa renewable for another equivalent period and an additional 200 young professionals in search of professional experience will also be granted 12 months visas renewable for an additional six months. Besides, the Government is exploring other possibilities with Australia.

Mauritius became a member of the International Organisation for Migration in 2006 and since then IOM has been assisting Mauritius in finding employment opportunities abroad for both Mauritian and Rodriguans interested to work abroad. IOM has also set up a Migration Resource Centre in Mauritius to complement the MCMD, and provides advice, information and documents to the public relating to immigration such as studying and working abroad.

Discussions Resume on Free Trade Agreement between Mauritius – Turkey

The third round of discussions between Mauritius and Turkey on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is scheduled on 9 and 10 February in Port Louis.

The meeting will be co-chaired by Ambassador A.P. Neewoor, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Government of Mauritius, and by Mr. Hüsnü Dilemre, Director General, Prime Ministry of Foreign Trade, on behalf of the Government of Turkey.

Both countries expect to pursue discussion on the outstanding provisions of the FTA and consider market access concessions to be granted as well as Rules of Origin. Moreover, Turkey expects to grant duty free access on all industrial products once negotiations are concluded.

It will be recalled that during the previous rounds, discussions focused on the framework that would guide the FTA and the concessions to be granted by both countries. So far, it has been agreed that the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) would be used as basis for negotiations.

The relevance of having a FTA between the two countries is guided by the policy response to the trade regime of the European Union (EU). On the one hand, Turkey is bound by the Customs Union Agreement with the EU and has therefore the obligation to align itself progressively to the preferential customs regimes of the EU towards the ACP countries, including Mauritius.

Mauritius has recently signed an Interim EPA with the EU, which contains a “Turkey clause” and sets the context for preferential trade negotiations between Mauritius and Turkey.

Mourant and Ozannes to merge creating offshore law firm leader

Mourant du Feu & Jeune and Ozannes, two of the leading law firms in the Channel Islands, have announced their intention to merge.

The merged firm, to be known as Mourant Ozannes, will bring together two of the premier firms in Guernsey and Jersey to create a firm with unrivalled strength-in-depth and industry knowledge across the Channel Islands.

Mourant Ozannes will also be one of the world’s largest offshore law firms with more than 200 fee-earners and 50 partners practising from offices in the Cayman Islands and London as well as Guernsey and Jersey.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, will be structured as a full economic merger of the existing businesses, effective 01 May 2010.

The new partnership will be run by a management committee comprising representatives of both firms. Jonathan Rigby of Mourant du Feu & Jeune will be appointed as group managing partner. Peter Ferbrache of Ozannes will become senior partner and Ian James of Mourant will become chairman.

Jonathan Rigby, managing partner of Mourant du Feu & Jeune, said:

"We have always had enormous respect for Ozannes and we regard them as the leading law firm in Guernsey. The opportunity to combine premier practices in Jersey and Guernsey was too good to miss. We are very excited by this development and are looking forward to working together on our shared vision, to be consistently recognised as the leading law firm offshore."

Robert Shepherd, managing partner of Ozannes, who will become managing partner of Mourant Ozannes’ Guernsey office, said:

"This is an exciting development for both firms, which will enable us to build on the heritage of two very successful offshore law firms. There are many synergies between the firms in terms of focus, structure, culture and talented people, and by combining our market leading offering we endeavour to become the most sought after offshore law firm for clients and staff."

STEP Launches Dedicated www.stepjournal.org Website

The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) today launched a new website for their award winning flagship publication, the STEP Journal, www.stepjournal.org

The STEP Journal is the official magazine of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. It is published ten times a year and has a readership of more than 28,000 practitioners and key regulatory, government and industry figures.

The new dedicated stepjournal.org website features a fully searchable STEP Journal archive, which will allow readers to search through all STEP Journal articles since the magazine’s redesign in 2008.

The website will also allow online access to STEP’s jurisdictional summaries, which provide an overview of legal, tax, regulatory and practice changes in all jurisdictions where there are STEP members.

Chief Executive David Harvey said: “The move to a dedicated website provides the latest evidence of the great progress that has been made by the STEP Journal since its inception almost 20 years ago. The key to the STEP Journal’s success has been the time and effort invested by STEP members and staff. The result is an industry leading publication.”

The judges at the 2009 Trade Association Forum Best Practice Awards described the STEP Journal as “an exemplar in Trade Associations magazines” which “provides high quality articles of specific relevance to the members in a clear format and is cost effective in communicating the organisation’s messages” in judging it as ‘Magazine of the Year’.

Mauritius : MoU to enhance collaboration among stakeholders of the ICT sector

In a bid to support the efficient growth of the local Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry, the National Computer Board (NCB), the University of Technology (UTM) and the Mauritius Information and Technology Industry Association (MITIA) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to give concrete expression to their commitment to collaborate together to develop and build capacity in ICT.

The three institutions are major stakeholders of the local ICT sector. The NCB is a parastatal body whose main mission is to facilitate the transformation of Mauritius into a regional ICT hub through a series of initiatives and services that foster e-powerment of people, of businesses and of the public sector. As for the UTM, it is a multi-level tertiary education provider whose goal is to offer continuing professional education to meet the needs of the country in terms of human resource development. MITIA, which regroups IT hardware and service companies of Mauritius, works at creating a favorable and suitable environment for the development of an industry that supports national development.

The MoU sets out a framework to enable the stakeholders to explore potential collaborative opportunities to achieve the country’s objectives in creating a pool of qualified manpower to support and sustain the development of the ICT industry. The collaborative programmes cover areas such as experience and knowledge sharing; training and capacity building in the fields of Business Process Outsourcing-Information Technology Enabled Services, Customer Relationships Management, Enterprises Resources Planning; development of link programmes between academia and private sector and entrepreneurship development in ICT, among others.

The signature of the MoU coincided with the visit of Mr Som Mittal, President of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) which is the premier trade body and the Chamber of Commerce for the IT – BPO industry in India. Mr Mittal shared the Indian experience with staff and students of the UTM in a public lecture on “Developing ICT as a Strong Pillar of the Economy’ on 29 January before attending the signature ceremony.

Mr Mittal reckoned that education and training add high value to the personnel of the ICT sector. He said that NASSCOM was ready to enhance collaboration with the Mauritian side through best practices and share learning to contribute to the expansion of the ICT sector.

SEC and UK FSA Hold Fifth Meeting of the SEC-FSA Strategic Dialogue

Today, Financial Services Authority (FSA) chairman Lord Turner and chief executive Hector Sants, and US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Mary Schapiro met as part of the SEC-FSA Strategic Dialogue. The purpose of the Dialogue, which was established in 2006, is to engage at the senior levels of the two agencies on current matters affecting the US and UK capital markets and areas of future collaboration. This was the fifth meeting of the Dialogue. Some of the areas of mutual interest discussed during today's meeting included:

• Corporate governance and executive compensation;
• Regulation of hedge funds and investment advisors and the protection of customer assets;
• Disclosure regimes around client asset risks;
• Market infrastructure, particularly relating to central counterparties for OTC derivatives;
• Market supervision;
• Cooperation on cross-border supervision.

At the meeting, Schapiro, Turner, and Sants agreed that, given the linkages between the US and UK markets, enhanced supervisory cooperation is critical to market integrity. Cooperative efforts between the staffs of the two agencies are increasing in areas such as oversight of credit rating agencies, hedge fund advisers and the clearing of OTC derivatives. To facilitate this expanding cooperation, the two agencies plan to review the existing Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Consultation, Cooperation and the Exchange of Information Related to the Supervision of Financial Services Firms and Market Oversight, entered into by the SEC and the FSA in 2006. This memorandum of understanding is designed to promote the coordination of robust and sound supervision of cross-border financial institutions and markets.

Today’s Dialogue also provided the opportunity for the SEC and the FSA to continue discussions in the areas of corporate governance, particularly board risk oversight, and executive compensation. Consistent with the emerging international consensus, both agencies’ current efforts seek to address, among other things, the intrinsic links between the types and degree of risks regulated entities/registrants assume and their corporate governance and compensation policies.

FSA chief executive Hector Sants said,

“Global cooperation between regulators is central to tackling the reform agenda and the relationship between the FSA and the SEC is key for international markets. Our ongoing dialogue gives us the opportunity to widen the areas of cooperation between the FSA and the SEC, in particular progressing our collaborative work on hedge funds and credit rating agencies.”

SEC chairman Schapiro said,

“This Dialogue has proven its utility again in allowing the SEC and FSA to share expertise and experiences regarding the rapid changes occurring in our capital markets. As regulatory reform advances on both sides of the Atlantic, we can feed this combined body of knowledge into the development of high-quality regulatory systems that take into account both national and international market dynamics.”

Mauritius : Investment Mission to India

An investment mission was organized from 17 to 22 January 2010 in India targeting New Delhi and Mumbai. The mission was led by the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Economic Empowerment, Dr the Hon Rama Sithanen. The Managing Director of the Board of Investment and the Chief Executive of the Financial Services Commission formed part of the delegation.

The objectives of the investment mission were to:

* Reinforce the image of Mauritius as a reputable and attractive financial services centre, with modern legal and regulatory framework for global business;
* Increase awareness of Mauritius opportunities as a financial platform for outbound investments from India, particularly to African Countries;
* Encourage Indian financial intermediaries to set up in Mauritius to manage their global business ;
* Promote investment opportunities in Mauritius namely in the ICT/BPO, pharmaceutical and healthcare as well as real estate and property development; and
* Sensitise Indian investors about the possibility of using Mauritius as a gateway for penetrating the Eastern and Southern African markets.

In New Delhi and Mumbai, plenary sessions on Financial Services were organized and were attended by more than 100 operators in the financial services sector i.e financial advisors, lawyers, accountants, private equities, funds and banks. Reassurance was given to investors during those sessions on the jurisdiction and they were invited to look at the possibility for them to manage their business out of Mauritius instead of structuring their investment through Mauritius. The idea was positively received by the members present. The VPM also re-emphasized the importance of using Mauritius as a financial platform for outbound investments for emerging markets and particularly to African Countries.

Many of the leading funds, private equities and banks such as ICICI Venture Fund, Rabo Private Equity Advisors, Chrys Capital, Redfort Capital, CX Partners, Baring Private Equity, Religare Advisory Services, Yes Bank, Mefcom Capital, IDFC, Amarchand & Mangaldas, JM Financials, IL&FS, Aditya Birla Asset Management, Birla Sunlife, 3i Capital, Bajaj Capital and Citi Bank attended the event.

Besides reinforcing our image as a reputable financial center of substance, the mission also aimed at creating awareness on the other investment opportunities. Investor Roundtables were organized in both Delhi and Mumbai to promote the opportunities in the ICT/BPO, real estate and hospitality as well as pharmaceutical and healthcare. The Roundtables, structured as interactive sessions, were moderated by either experts in the respective field and media people. Indian investors that are already present in Mauritius were invited to share their views and experience that they had in the country.

The ICT/BPO roundtable was moderated by Mr Gaurav Gupta, Country Head from Everest Consulting and had as panelist the VPM, the MD of BOI and Mr Raman Roy from Quattro. Emphasis was placed on the growth of the BPO sector in Mauritius, its contribution to the economy and how Mauritius has moved from voice-based BPO and contact centres to high value-added activities such as Financial, Legal , Medical BPO, Software Development, Multimedia Development, Data Centres for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery which represent today 60 % of the activities. It was also pointed out that the package for ICT/BPO in Mauritius is attractive: it is a blend of cost-competitiveness with service quality, adaptability and flexibility. Our strength also lies in our bilingualism and our simple and low fiscal regime. Some of the leading ICT companies like Fidelity Business Services, Genpact, NewGen, Microsoft and Tata Consultancy attended the roundtable.

The Real Estate and Hospitality roundtable was moderated in Delhi by Mr Tejeesh Behl, Corporate Editor of Mint and in Mumbai by Mr Ashok Advani of Business Today. Mr Gautam Raj, EVP Strategy and Development of the Oberoi Group was part of the panel in Delhi and shared the good experience that the Group had in Mauritius. He also announced that the Oberoi Group is expanding its presence in Mauritius by developing an 80-room hotel around the wellness and spa concept in collaboration with a local partner.

In Mumbai, Mr Philippe Kalkaria from Tata Realty shared his experience with the members present.

Many leading property developers and investors in the hospitality sector as well as infrastructure such as DLF, ITC Welcome, Rajeha Developers, Unison Hotels, Gammon Infrastructure and Vishal Infrastructure attended the roundtables.

The Pharma and Healthcare roundtable was attended by around 20 companies mainly in the pharmaceutical sector and research and development. The session was moderated by Dr Milind Atani from Nishith Desai Associates and Mr Sanjeev Vashista from Fortis shared his experience on the panel. Emphasis was placed on the development of a fast growing healthcare and lifesciences industry in Mauritius. It was also highlighted that the country is on its way to become a healthcare, wellness and medical outsourcing hub par excellence, supported by a strong pharmaceutical, biotech and medical devices industries, and driven by high-end biomedical research and innovation.

The delegation also had an extensive interaction with the press during their visit. There is currently a wrong perception in the Indian Press that Mauritius is being used to launder illegal and illicit money and our international financial centre is also perceived as being a tax haven. It is, therefore, essential for Mauritius to remove that negative perception and to be actively promoted as a Global Business Jurisdiction of Substance. This is very important so as to reassure the business community as well as to reinforce our position on the Indian market. The delegation engaged extensively with the press and stressed on the fact that Mauritius is a clean jurisdiction, is well regulated and the measures taken to reinforce the image of Mauritius as a jurisdiction of substance was also highlighted. The extensive interaction with the Press was widely reported in the following papers: Indian Express, Times of India, Economic Times, Business Standard, the Hindu, Financial Times, CNBC TV 18, UTVI Bloomberg and ET Now.