THE JOINT ECONOMIC COUNCIL
Dear Members,
I have the pleasure to submit to you
the report on the activities of the JEC for the period of January to December
2007.
(i) The Executive Committee
of the JEC
The
Executive Committee of the JEC held seven meetings during the year 2007. I would like to reiterate that the JEC
Executive Committee offers a unique platform for all the Chairmen and CEOs of
the major business organizations to share their views and to coordinate private
sector positions at the national level.
(ii) Financial position
of the JEC
The audited
accounts, showing a slight surplus for the period January to December 2007,
have been circulated.
iii) Office space of the
JEC
A new PABX system has been installed for
all the tenants within the building.
(iv) Revisiting
the private sector institutions and the JEC
In the light of the significant economic
reforms undertaken by Government, the dismantling of all preferences and the
emergence of new economic activities, Mauritius is moving from a
“sector” led economy to a business platform which will be driven by
a wide range of clusters.
As a result of the new economic
architecture and changes taking place both at the international and domestic
fronts, private sector organizations will also undergo radical adjustment. The ground work undertaken early this
year highlights the following issues:-
(i) the
exercise to strengthen the JEC must be done concurrently with the review of its
member organizations;
(ii) there
is a need to discuss the ‘frontiers’ among the member organizations
of the JEC;
(iii)
the
‘coverage’ of new economic activities within the JEC membership;
(iv)
the
question of new membership of the JEC and its impact on the existing organizations;
and
(v) the
emergence of ethnic chambers.
Members agreed that a working group be
set up, comprising all CEO’s of our member organizations to clear the
issues mentioned above and to set the way forward
(v) Communications
by the JEC
Following a decision of the Executive
Committee, the JEC launched its Newsletter in October 2007. The Newsletter has enabled the JEC to
express its position on a number of issues in a precise manner while avoiding,
as far as possible, the risk of misinterpretation. As such, all the three JEC Newsletters
received very good media coverage.
B. RELATIONS WITH GOVERNMENT
(i) Overall Government/Private Sector
relationship
The Government/Private Sector
relationship during the year, especially with the Prime Minister’s office
was rather difficult. As such, the
private sector was subject to frequent attacks in the first quarter
of the year.
The JEC held a ‘Point de Presse’ in May 2007 with
a view to informing the public at large of the private sector’s
assessment of the business environment.
The ‘Point de Presse’ received significant media coverage and a
number of issues raised led to strong comments by the Prime Minister and some
members of the Government. However,
in a response to a letter of the JEC, the Prime Minister expressed his
willingness to meet the JEC and subsequently, he received the President of the
JEC on 29 August 2007 and reiterated his wish to work closely with the Private
Sector.
The Prime Minister agreed to open
discussions with the MSPA on sugar reforms, which was a major area of
divergence, in October and an agreement was reached in December 2007.
It is pertinent, however, to highlight
that during the year, the relationship with the Deputy Prime Minister &
Minister of Public Infrastructure, the Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of
Finance and a number of other Ministers was excellent.
(ii) Budgetary consultations
In the context
of the 2007/2008 budgetary consultations, the JEC submitted a Memorandum on 31
May 2007. The Memorandum of the JEC focused on the following main areas:-
(i)
Embedding
the Business Facilitation Act in the day-to-day business environment;
(ii)
Strengthening
of the regulatory environment in some key sectors;
(iii)
Improving
access to finance, especially for SME’s;
(iv)
Implementing
major infrastructure reforms;
(v)
Changing
the labour environment;
(vi)
Improving
the public finance position of
(vii)
Strengthening
the Empowerment Programme.
The Memorandum
was released to the press on 7 June 2007.
The JEC, in its comments after the
presentation of the 2007/08 Budget, expressed support for the
Government’s commitment to continue with the reforms and the strategy to
integrate the vulnerable groups through the Empowerment Programme.
During the year, the JEC led the placement/training
component of the Empowerment Programme and an innovative approach was put into
place to connect companies with the unemployed through job fairs. In this context, a national Job
Fair was organized from 19 to 22 April to provide a platform for this purpose.
The focus was on the growth as well as the emerging sectors, namely textile
& clothing, tourism, construction, ICT/BPO, and sea food. More than 24 000
visitors attended the Job Fair.
Twenty-five companies participated in the Fair and around 2000 persons
were placed.
With the
success obtained from this contact between enterprises and job seekers, two
regional job fairs were organized in September 2007for the Hotel sector with
the collaboration of AHRIM. As at
to-day, around 3500 unemployed have been placed in companies.
(iv) Business Facilitation
The ‘Doing
Business Survey’ of the World Bank showed that the overall ranking of
i)
dealing
with licenses;
ii)
registering
property;
iii)
getting
credit; and
iv)
enforcing
contracts
The JEC and BOI continued to work
together to improve these indicators through a Joint Working Group. Other institutions of the private
sector, namely, the MCCI, AHRIM and MBA also formed part of the sub-committee
on specific topics.
(v) Sugar Reforms
The Director
of the JEC formed part of the MSPA team which prepared the negotiations with
Government regarding the implementation of the MAAS.
The JEC had
been working closely with the MCCI and other stakeholders regarding the issue
of price control on iron-bars and the supply of wheat by the STC.
The JEC and
MCCI submitted, jointly, the private sector’s comments on the Competition
Bill, which was eventually presented to the National Assembly.
The JEC formed
part of a Government/Private Sector Working Group and participated actively in
the discussions with Government to find a way forward on the package proposed
by the consultant, Jonathan Richmond.
The
consultant Jonathan Richmond had proposed to Government the implementation of a
first phase of the decongestion plan, comprising mainly:-
(i) the
setting up of the Land Transport Authority;
(ii) the Terre-Rouge – Ebène
road;
(iii) the motorway bus lane;
and
(iv) the bus way from
Curepipe to Port-Louis.
Meetings
were held with the Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Public
Infrastructure to invite Government to opt for this phased approach.
The JEC led
the discussions in a workshop on Cost Comparative Study on the Seafood Hub
Sector which was organized in
The JEC
submitted an Aide Mémoire to the Ministry of Agro Industry and Fisheries
in November 2007 with respect to Taiwanese vessels in the context of the
provisions of the Fisheries and Marine Resources Act. The Aide Mémoire highlighted that
some sections of the Act could jeopardize the albacore segment of the Seafood
Industry. It was agreed that the new legislations would not be enacted until
the problem was resolved and, accordingly, a joint Working Group has been put
into place to find a solution
(ix) Port Strategy
The JEC and MEXA
coordinated three workshops to work out a shared
vision of all stakeholders of the Private Sector on the challenges facing the
port and the need to chart out a roadmap to meet these challenges. Subsequently, an Aide Mémoire was
prepared to be used as the basis for discussions with the Authorities.
(x) Labour
Laws
The JEC worked closely with the MEF at
the level of a Negotiating Team and participated in the discussions regarding
the new labour legislations to remove the rigidities in the labour market.
(xi) Landlord and Tenant Act
The JEC coordinated the Private
Sector’s position against a proposed amendment to the Landlord and Tenant
Act of 2005, which was meant to raise the transition period from 7 years to
around 60-70 years.
A Memorandum was submitted to Government
to that effect.
(i) EPA Negotiations
The JEC
coordinated private sector’s position regarding the EPA negotiations with
the EU and participated in some of the crucial negotiations leading towards the
signature of an interim agreement in December 2007.
The interim
agreement was necessary to maintain preferential market access of Mauritian
goods in the EU
(ii) Aid for Trade
The JEC continued
to work closely with the Ministry of Finance & Economic Development on the
operationalisation of the Aid for Trade as an instrument to finance development
needs of developing countries.
(iii) Trade and Investment
Framework Agreement (TIFA)
The JEC
coordinated private sector’s participation in the discussions on the
Trade and Investment Framework Agreement between
(iv) Prime Minister’s
official visit to
In July 2007,
the JEC was invited to join the official mission of the Prime Minister to
The JEC
together with UNDP organized a national capacity building training on corporate
citizenship for the business sector in
The business
sector, para-statal bodies and NGOs had responded positively to the two days
training.
(ii) Setting up of a
Credit Information Bureau (CIB)
The
IFC undertook a Feasibility Assessment Report on behalf of the JEC, the MBA and
the Bank of Mauritius. The Report was presented to all stakeholders during a
workshop organized on 25 June 2007 by the JEC and the IFC.
The Board of
Investment has set up a Joint Working Group (JWG) on the CIB and the JEC as
well as the MBA form part of the JWG.
The JEC
continued its close links with international organizations and was regularly
consulted by a number of such Agencies, namely, the World Bank, ADB, IFC and
IMF on the overall economic development strategy of Mauritius.
The JEC, as a
partner institute of the World Economic Forum (WEF) continued to support the
WEF in conducting its executive opinion survey for the Global Competitiveness
Report.
The
inclusion of
G. FOREIGN DIGNITARIES
An official delegation led by the Deputy
Prime Minister of Burkina Faso was in Mauritius in August 2007, and as such, a
working lunch was organized by the JEC for the delegation.
I would like
to thank all the members for their support and their solidarity during the year
2007 which, to the say the least, was quite eventful.
JEC
March 2008