Mauritius tops African Index on Economic Transformation

The African Index on Economic Transformation (ACET) ranks Mauritius first in overall economic transformation ahead of South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, and Gabon in its 2014 report launched in partnership with the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) on Monday in South Africa.

The African Transformation Index is meant to provide a common quantitative tool to measure the progress of countries. The research aims to map the African landscape on key policy issues, to identify best practice in Africa and around the world.

ACET assesses African countries based on the following criterion namely: Diversification of production and exports; Export competitiveness and gains; Productivity increases; Technology upgrading; and Human economic well-being improvements, particularly by expanding formal productive employment.

According to the 2014 report the strong performance of Mauritius can be mostly attributed to export competitiveness (the share of exports of goods and services in a country’s GDP relative to the corresponding share for the world), productivity, and human well-being.

The report further highlights that the main factors triggering the Mauritian success, are mainly the commitment of the Government to its programme, links to a national economic agenda, cost effective and reliable infrastructure, effective planning and management and business friendly administration and procedures for investors.

Regarding the human well-being index which comprises GDP per capita and the share of formal employment in the labour force, the report states that Mauritius stands out mainly because of its high GDP per capita ahead of Botswana, South Africa, and Gabon.

ACET is an economic policy institute supporting Africa’s long-term growth through transformation. Its vision is that by 2025 all African countries will drive their own growth and transformation agendas, led by the private sector and supported by capable states with good policies and strong institutions. ACET looks at transformation as a broad framework for growth and development and identifies best practices from Africa and beyond. It seeks to investigate the drivers of economic transformation; examine the progress, platform, and prospects for transformation for African countries; and identify each country’s most promising pathways to transformation.