Ladies and Gentlemen, let me first of all dwell on development before we discuss the management of the transition process. The whole development landscape has been transformed presenting policymakers with new challenges at both global and local levels.
Background
The budget preparation process in Mauritius has been subject to certain criticism as it is particularly ill-equipped to engage in good strategic planning. It does not allow Government to effectively evaluate its earlier measures, rethink its key policy objectives and prioritise expenditures in the best possible way. In the Public Expenditure Note of 1999, the World Bank noted that "… the modalities of budget preparation are anachronistic, and not conducive to strategic thinking and consensus building about results and objectives."
Around the mid of the last century of the last millennium, Mauritius was a new, frail and tottering nation but at the finale of the millennium, it was celebrating its successes. It has carved out special niches in some sectors Iike sugar, textile and tourism and has made it into the group of the high middle-income countries.
Mauritius: The Singapore of Africa
It is a tall order to claim that Mauritius is already the Singapore of Africa. Mauritius is synonymous with an African success story but not yet part of tiger-land. It is more of an African cub-tiger "that still sleeps at four"; however, it is gradually acquiring the wherewithals to achieve its ambition to accede to the exclusive club of the East Asian tigers that include - Singapura, the lion city.