The minister of finance and economic development, Pravind Jugnauth, has announced a long-term nominal GDP target of US$20bn by 2020, over double the US9.7bn recorded in 2010. This would reproduce the strong performance of the economy over the past ten years, which saw nominal GDP growing from US$4.6bn in 2000. Addressing the Board of Investment, Mr Jugnauth said that attracting investment would be the key to achieving this repeat of Mauritius's economic miracle. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Mauritius increased by 67.3% year on year in 2010 to reach MRs13.2bn (US$430m), the main recipients being the financial sector, real estate and the health sector (Indian investment in a private hospital).

The government's rather ambitious aim is to make Mauritius the springboard for foreign investment in Africa. Returning from a visit to Europe, Mr Jugnauth said that he had discussed a number of areas for further FDI with businesspeople there, including renewable energy, construction, logistics, information and communications technology, financial services, tourism in general and medical tourism in particular. However, he did acknowledge that there was worldwide competition for this investment.

The dilemma for Mr Jugnauth is that much of the success of Mauritius's economy since 2005 has been attributed to the economic reforms introduced by his predecessor, Rama Sithanen. These have resulted in Mauritius being ranked as the top country in Sub-Saharan Africa for economic freedom. However, these reforms were politically unpopular and, to some extent, they have been relaxed by Mr Jugnauth, whose economic strategy is based on expansionary economic policies rather than continuing structural and economic reforms. This has been commented on by the IMF and heavily criticised by the World Bank, and could weaken Mauritius's attractiveness to overseas investors and undermine Mr Jugnauth's GDP growth target.