Titbits: Et tu Brute!!! ; Yellow Fever; Joint Management of Tromelin ; Stimulus Package Demystified; Purchasing power –Rs 420.

Et tu Brute!!!

There may be some sense in the theatricals of the Directors of our prestigious Central Bank (CB) -- making their show on the pavements of our Wall Street. But with a Deputy Governor leading it, it was much more than third-grade street drama. Et tu Brute, you seem to be leading the wrong flock of monetary policy neophytes who have morphed into potential sources of conflicts and giving rise to substantial governance issues -- the very ones who supported by their high-command are convinced that they have enough of angst to display it publicly. The former governor of the Reserve Bank of South Africa Tito Mboweni disagrees and he reminds us that “central banks are special institutions, almost as special as the judiciary, and their independence must almost be elevated to the same level as that of the judiciary.”

Unlocking the Budget Figures

This last budget of this government needs to be put in its proper context; it is its fourth budget that had as precursor the 2006/07 Budget which promised to usher in a new socio-economic model centred on global competitiveness to return the economy to higher growth paths and full employment.  This involves a transition from the obsolete and counterproductive preference-based development model to an environment of fully liberalized trade where no activities, be it for export or for import, are shielded from international competition.

The Budget’s tricky tricks

After the lukewarm reception that the Budget obtained from the majority in the National Assembly compared to last year’s hurrahs and thumping that accompanied the more juicier bits, it needed something quite original to cheer up spirits. To some extent, this was provided by the PM’s intervention. He tried to put on a brave face given the rough road ahead; but he did distance himself somewhat from the dole outs of the Additional Stimulus Package to big business without meaningful conditionalities, aware that despite all his efforts this budget cannot win support among Labour’s rank and file and the public that is increasingly disenchanted with  the TINA ( There Is No Alternative) policies.

Amendments in the Finance Bill

The sessions of the National assembly were drawing to a close and we got quite a glimpse of our dear representatives fumbling for answers when questioned closely about their deliverables and ultimately delivering so little. We were getting quite exhausted with persistent requests, that were not entertained, for commission of enquiries ( given the crisis, we cannot expect Government to be allocating scarce funds for all kinds of enquiries, do we !!)  ;

The Upturn : restrained,fragile and patchy

One year after the financial conflagration that devastated Wall Street and burned financial institutions around the globe with a credit binge that brought us the credit crunch, the world economy seems to be shifting gears. It has gone from reverse to neutral. US President Barack Obama caught the mood at the Group-20 Pittsburgh Summit last month saying “because of the bold and coordinated action that we took millions of jobs have been saved or created, the decline in output has been stopped…”.

Titbits: Labour Market Flexibility, Depreciation of the rupee, Inflation and The pitfalls of a passive approach

Labour Market Flexibility

You must have caught sight of the “Artworks” produced at strategic places by the temporary workers recruited under the Tourism Fund. These workers are under a one year contract and have been recruited to supplement the work already being done by others. The TINAwallahs have rushed in to claim that it is our flexible labour laws which have helped to create jobs, even in a recession. They had first of all, without much of evidence, but with lot of conviction in their neoliberal economic order, questioned the efficiency of the welfare state labour market institutions. They had pushed for the hire and fire employment laws but with a logic that lacks sufficient basis.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): the mess

(Published in L'Express)

From the new Finance Bill, we can read that “companies shall in every year, set up a CSR Fund equivalent to 2% of its book profit derived from the preceding year to implement(a) an approved programme by the Company;(b) implement an approved programme under the National Empowerment Foundation; or(c) an approved NGO.” Elections beckoning, most of our representatives from the 20 constituencies of the country are toiling hard to come up with their list of priority social projects and they know very well how to “weave, it neatly and effectively with Government social policies for greater impact on the targeted areas and groups”that will be benefiting from the huge CSR fund. 

Economic Parnership Agreement (EPA) with EU

The confident certainty of some of the interviewees and interventions on the advantages and opportunities that will accrue to Mauritius following the economic partnership agreement between eastern and southern Africa and EU surprised many. We just have to jump on this frenetic trade treadmill – the EPA-EU partnership -that they cannot shut off, it will lead us to the goldmine heralding a new business ebullience. But there are quite some skeptics; they are not all convinced ; free of the  intellectual straitjackets that hobble so many of our bureaucrats and elite, they do more than just skim the surface and distribute their comments all around as if these are the conclusive evidence of  some meaningful research.

Titbits: The 24/7 economy model: A lifeline for traders; Regionalisation; The IRS and RES Model; HIV/AIDS: AOL joins the fight; Exchange rate and Inflation

The 24/7 economy model: A lifeline for traders

These were exciting moments as crowds thronged the streets of the capital in support of the fun and frolic of the Mauritian version of the 24/7 concept as promoted by the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC). Should HRDC be doing that?

Disillusioned

Disillusioned

We are in the grip of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.  Though Mr Doom, Mr Nouriel Roubini, had warned us back in December 2006 that a crisis was looming, it was only after the collapse of the Lehman Brothers bank last September and the ensuing stock market crash that it dawned on us that we had more on our hands than just another irrational exuberance of the capital market manifested by the bursting of yet another bubble. This one, unfortunately, was gradually morphing into a severe global recession. As the crisis continues unabated, one thing is becoming clear, we are the witnesses of a reality that is repeatedly debunking our prognoses as being either too worst or all too optimistic. Some believe that the economy could fall back into step more quickly than predicted and they see inflation as a much greater threat. Others are predicting that the worst is yet to come; we are just at the beginning of the global freefall and we don't really know when we are going to hit rock bottom and once we reach it, how long the global economy will lie there.

Behind the Figures

If the Minister of Finance (MOF) feels the heat, he is not letting anyone see him sweat. For the third time in three weeks, he is “not happy at all about all that”- RS Denim, the STC and the Bank of Mauritius. While he tries to settle old scores, collecting enough of ammunitions to embarrass the Governor of the Bank of Mauritius on allegations of exaggerated expenses incurred by him, we will continue, on our side, to query some of the opacities of the Budget.

Titbits: The new labour laws; Reinventing MK; The emperors and their fiefs; The stimulus package : Out of steam; The Gold Option; The Maurice Ile Durable ( MID) Project

The new labour laws

At the Round Table organized by the Confederation of workers of the private sector (CSTP) on the new Labour laws, the representatives of the Mauritius Employers Federation and the Minister of Labour were conspicuously absent.

Titbits : A different perspective: The 24/7 economy model ; And the Grand Bassin show ; Kowtowing to the Asian Powerhouse ; Collective responsibility and witch-hunting; The next Minster of Finance; Depreciation of the rupee ; Abolishing the laureate system

 A different perspective: The 24/7 economy model

An avid commentator of the Mauritian scene once remarked that we are des beaux parleurs, and we get so carried away by our own rhetoric that we start believing in them and the clichés that we readily churn out. We have turned our homeland into a knowledge hub, a regional financial and services hub, a Seafood hub, a judicial hub, an inescapable Cyber hub, a Financial, Banking, Management or Legal Service Centre, a Maurice Ile Durable, you name it.

Aberrant !!! : Hedging; Extension of class hours; Food security; Two million tourists in 2015; The Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS); Our man from Harvard.

It is so aberrant that some of the stewards and opinion leaders of our economy have grown so gullible, refusing to wake up from the torpor into which they have been lulled in as the new formidable cohort of followers and cheerleaders. It is much easier to bend to the wind, to join the bandwagon than to take a hard look at the facts and filter out the frivolous statements, the incendiary rhetoric and its inadequacies.  Leadership or management or any such position of responsibility is supposed to be about more than cheering your team, humbling and jeering the other side- the dissenting side- that has freed itself from that horrible urge to always fit in and now dares to think differently. It’s supposed to be about changing the country for the better.

Stimulus package: Greater Coherence needed

The effectiveness of the additional stimulus package of around Rs 10 billion, equivalent to 3.8% of GDP ( much above the 2% norm recommended by the international institutions) to shore up our economic performance will depend to a large extent on some important parameters. A fundamental one, as pointed out by erudite Pierre Dinan, is our ability of “sortir du mode du projet pou passer à l’action” - especially the big time lag between allocation of funds and actual work being started.