Mauritius, initially uninhabited, was at first visited by Arab sailors in the Middle Ages, and then by the Portuguese at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was also briefly colonised by the Dutch, then French and British settlements respectively followed. It achieved independence in 1968. Until 1992 the Queen of England was still head of State of Mauritius. On the 12th of March 1992, Mauritius became a republic with its own President. Mauritius is situated in the South West Indian Ocean. It is where East meets West, the world in miniature, a million inhabitants whose ancestors originated from the Indian sub-continent, Africa, China and Europe.

Mauritius is now a multi-party parliamentary democracy. The Mauritian economy, formerly based on the production of sugar, has in the last twenty years been greatly diversified. While sugar is still important, with production being between 650, 000 - 700,000 tons per annum, the economy has now two other major export earners, the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) and Tourism.

The EPZ was devised in the early 1970's, but its major impact on the Mauritian economy has been in the 1980's and 1990's. Considerable investment, both foreign and Mauritian, has been made in the EPZ and today 90,000 people are employed in the EPZ factories.

In 1993 EPZ exports were worth RS. 14,000 million (US$ 750 million). The majority of these factories are engaged in the manufacture of garments, both knitted and woven, for export to the European Common Market and the United States of America. There are, however, factories producing leather goods, watches, sporting equipment, gloves and spectacles etc.

Tourism in Mauritius got off to a relatively slow start in the 1960's, but the number of tourist arrivals has increased considerably in the last ten years and in 1993, some 375,000 tourists visited Mauritius. Mauritius has a reputation as an up market destination. This reputation is based on the quality of its hotels, the standard and variety of the cuisine found on the island and the friendliness of its people.


Mauritius
The personification of paradise lost in the midst of the Indian Ocean


Sugarcane s fields
Cane is the main cash crop of the island


The EPZ sector
 One of the main pillars of the Mauritian economy

LINKS

The portal site of Mauritius

The Mauritian net

Le Mauricien Newspaper

L'express Newspaper

The MBC