SECRETARY GENERAL CONCLUDES WORKING VISIT TO THE INDIAN OCEAN COMMISSION

Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko meets some of the key Mauritius Private Sector

The Secretary General of the East African Community, Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko has concluded a working visit to the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) in Mauritius, following an invitation by the Secretary General of the Commission, Mr. Jean Claude de l'Estrac. IOC is a regional integration organization that has memberships of Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles, Madagascar, and France.

Apart from visiting IOC, Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko seized the opportunity to market EAC to the Mauritius Private Sector stakeholders, including meeting with the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture; Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Enterprise Mauritius; Mauritius Investment Authority; Business Mauritius; and Mauritius Export Association. All the stakeholders met expressed the need to explore investment and business opportunities between Mauritius and the EAC Partner States.

Mauritius exports 400,000 tonnes of sugar annually. The Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture and several other private sector players expressed their readiness to penetrate the EAC market and urged the Secretary General to link them with the East African Business Council (EABC), the private arm of the East African Community, in order to strengthen collaboration in trade, investment and mutual cooperation.

In order to initiate the collaboration, Enterprise Mauritius is set to organize a visit and an Exhibition to the EAC in October 2016 for over 15 key Mauritius Manufacturers. The Mauritius Board of Investment has also invited the Investment Promotion Authorities/Agencies in the EAC Partner States for a Networking Conference from 20th to 21st September 2016 to be held in Mauritius. To cement the collaboration, the Mauritius Private Sector has expressed the need to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the EAC. The Africa Centre of Excellence for Business (ACEB) has pledged to develop an EAC Handbook on Opportunities that will serve as a marketing tool to underpin the collaboration.