In le Défi, economist Kevin Teroovengadum qualifies the measures taken till now to boost the economy’s growth rate as mere “fire fighting”. His new model can be summed up as a new vision for the economy that includes a holistic and coherent strategy for all our traditional engines of growth-the tourism sector, the silver economy, the global business sector…. that will generate more of value added for more of qualitative growth.
In L’express, T. Chellapermal reminds us that “Mauritius must constantly reinvent its economic model”. "One of the most important drivers for economic growth is innovation," he asserts, "we have to put or put back the theme of innovation at the centre of the country's agenda and our decision-makers, whether in the public or private sector." It is now generally accepted that the arrival of new technologies - biotechnology, blockchain, digital connectivity, material science or artificial intelligence - will help support growth and improve the quality of life of the population.
The Covid-19 crisis has, for example, brought the subject of food security back to the forefront. Innovation, thanks to the contribution of new technologies, can undoubtedly help to revitalize our agriculture by encouraging the State and businesses to mobilize their resources in R&D, enhance tertiary education in agriculture and increase the technological linkages in the economy
On Rising Ocean's Monday’s programme -Ki Nouvo Moris , Kugan Parapen first of all pointed out that increasingly there are two to three social categories within our country. One for the rich who can benefit from the current set of policies and the weakening currency and another category/ies which is/are struggling to make ends meet. The majority of the population find themselves in the disadvantaged bucket. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening. We are seeing very different outcomes in a country of contrast.
He also makes a comprehensive assessment of the present economic model in terms of its inequities , the gentrification of the economy, the continuous impoverishment of the lower and middle classes and an elite that goes on squeezing living standards out of those lower down by all means available ; a model that is encouraging the growing emigration of our workers to greener pastures; a model that is accentuating the decline in social mobility, particularly for those on low pay, that is inevitably leading to the constant depreciation of the rupee to which we can add a risk-averse rentier class that cannot wean itself from its reliance on low hanging fruits .
An economic model where the coalition of the political elite with the private sector, especially big business and those who have high concentration of land ownership, are reaping most of the benefits of government policies and maintaining its oligopolistic control across various sectors of the economy.
The first new model being proposed is new in the sense of a more revigorated version of the status quo while the second proposal of a reinvented model of growth relates to some modern technological touches to the present economic model. Both these proposals of a new economic model do not put in question the whole basis of the present model; their proposals can be interpreted as more of cosmetic changes to the status quo.
Kugan , of the ReA , has consistently fought against the imposition upon us of the present economic model and the accompanying tyranny of “no alternatives” and has unwaveringly questioned the very basis of our development model.
He argues for an alternative model that totally overhauls the status-quo and is a rupture to our present economic model- especially a rupture that will mean a limit to the construction of hotels, the encroachment of our public beaches, a genuine Climate Change bill and an end to the Real Estate and Smart City Schemes, among others.
Kugan rightly doubts the commitment of the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition to do away with such a development model- and to the gentrification of our country .
He demands that we persist in questioning the different political parties -parliamentary or extra parliamentary -on the gentrification issue and ensure that its discontinuation is included in their political manifestos.
