The Ayo Factor
The patrons of the Mauritian "miracle" spare no effort to wow us with pet projects, comparative tables and statistics that are supposed to validate their contributions to our development model. Regardless how shoddy, alienating and environmentally unfriendly. There is plenty more than meets the eyes. If airfreighted organic bananas and lychees (weighed without branches and leaves!) can be sold inclusive of taxes in France, for instance, at a fraction of the price we pay here without airfreight and taxes, we must seriously ponder how and why the system is failing our productivity so badly. This is far from any suggestion that Dominican Republic and Madagascar outshine us in terms of overall competitiveness. But it certainly makes a mockery of our tiger status. For decades impediments have been piling up to inflate the cost of doing business in Mauritius. Namely, the sullen (of late) and inadequately trained human capital; the market capture by inefficient parastata