Country Report Mauritius February 2011

Economic performance: China and Mauritius sign a new co-operation agreement

On January 7th, during a visit by China's vice-premier, Hui Liangyu, Mauritius and China signed a US$9m economic and trade co-operation agreement to fund projects to be agreed by both countries. US$6m will be a grant and US$3m will be an interest-free loan. Mr Hui reiterated China's interest in Mauritius as a gateway to Africa. This interest has grown in recent years, despite the fact that trade between the two countries has not grown as quickly as China's trade with other African countries, and actually fell in 2009 before recovering in 2010.

Trade with China
	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010a
Total trade (US$ m)b	157.8	185.6	205.1	289.4	323.1	298.2	320.5
% change, year on year	42.9	17.6	10.5	41.1	11.7	-7.7	33.0
a January-Octtober. b Mauritian exports to China form less than 2% of bilateral trade.
Source: Xinhua News Agency, China Economic Information Service.

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In 2007 the Chinese government and China Development Bank agreed to fund the construction of the US$750m Jin-Fei (formerly Tianli) Economic and Trade Co-operation Zone north of the capital, Port Louis. This business park, the first stage of which is due for completion by 2012, is one of five such zones China hopes to build in Africa. Around 40 Chinese businesses will set up operations ranging from clothes manufacturing to hardware assembly and food processing.

Whilst every effort has been taken to verify the accuracy of this information, The Economist lntelligence Unit Ltd. cannot accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this information

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