Mauritius is a developing country passing through the phases of industrialisation. This process has its casualties and its winners. The new Mauritius Chamber of Commerce (MCC) president is upbeat but alarmingly perceives the Government to be a mere bad communicator instead of a poor private sector energiser. Are things really that good? Would we really feel different if the government took a leaf out of the British (New) Labour Party book of presentation and spin? Is the MCC advocating a proliferation of spin doctors and endless advisers?

Business is a concrete and practical enterprise. All businessmen know that you live by your decision and die by your decision. This is how real the private sector ventures are. When things are bad and conditions are not right, businessmen know it and no amount of communication from the government will put the gloss on economic hardship. The MCC needs to refocus its pink lenses. Where is the government facilitating business empowerment of business? What recent initiative has emerged out of the MCC to nurture ideas leading to innovatory business investment for young entrepreneurs? So, the assertion that ?things are not that bad? is more to do with politicising business rather than political lobby. The MCC should put the spotlight more on political lobby, which is to do with the influencing of national economic and industrial policies to create the right conditions for small businesses to flourish. It has nothing to do with the communication machinery of the government.

The survival and progress of a country depend on small businesses. The MCC should understand this concept as its foundation to launch a sustained campaign to fight for a climate which energises the economy of Mauritius. Although multinationals and large companies are significant, they do not energise economies but exercise monopolies. It is the small businessman who actively contributes to services with convenience and job creation. It is a mistake to court multinationals that are powerful enough to dictate tax and benefits conditions, which are adverse to the economy of Mauritius. We must learn from the collapse of textile industries. Some would argue that the writing was on the wall and, had Mauritius done its homework before launching the industrial revolution, we might have saved our workers a lot of heartache and loss of jobs. We are a resilient Nation and we must come out of this debacle stronger and smarter. Thus, the sooner the MCC realises the importance and role of small businesses, the better we are going to be.

The strategy that the MCC should adopt is to monitor the monopolies that our large companies exercise. Every time a monopoly is instituted, it strangles a small business and contributes to unemployment. The main purpose of multinationals is to maximise dividends for their shareholders. This is abundantly clear in developed countries. Subsidiaries of multinationals in developing countries are dictated by the parent company and the objectives are still maximisation of profits. So, my plea to the MCC is to communicate to the people how multinationals impose their will on pricing, employment conditions and uncompetitive elements. This is how the MCC should make 2004 the Year of Communication. The agenda must be the incubation, nurturing and proliferation of small businesses.

The MCC should examine the employment of foreign workers. Small businesses need skills and expertise that may be in short supply to start a new venture and train local workers. However, the government currently imposes far too advantageous conditions in favour of foreign workers. A good example is the bakery industry where foreign workers are entitled to:

<I>Free accommodation

Free Electricity

Free Gas

Same wage as Mauritian workers

Tax free salary

Free meals and food

Free groceries

Free medical services</I>

How can a small business cope with such employment conditions? What incentive is there to start a new venture? How would such advantageous conditions for foreign nationals encourage Mauritians to work harder? Doing the same job for less reward? Small businesses cannot afford to work with such draconian industrial laws. The profit margin for small businesses is not that great. By imposing such adverse conditions, the government is consciously imprisoning the development of small progressive businesses on whose very success the economy hinges. This is sheer madness or economic suicide. Both the MCC and the government must realise that economic success will not be sustained just by attracting foreign companies to the cyber city or outsourcing from Mauritius.

<B>Primary industries to absorb local graduates</B>

We must develop a culture of growing our own and this means empowering small businesses by removing draconian and antagonistic industrial rules and regulations. This is the scheme for primary industries, which tend to be permanent and more successful. Inviting foreign companies to establish a branch in Mauritius is secondary industries. The master plan for energising the private sector is to facilitate the development of primary industries within the framework of SMIDO. It is the primary businesses, which will need new employees from the local market, whereas secondary industries tend to be more specialised and offer their top posts to foreign nationals. Mauritians are still confined to firstline and middle management jobs. The University of Mauritius is producing hundreds of graduates with aspirations and these brains need a channel to contribute at the highest level in our industrial revolution. Mauritius cannot afford a brain drain if it is to shift up a gear in this industrial progress.

The government and the MCC must lead an initiative, which will make entrepreneurial skills and opportunities more accessible. The centralised status of SMIDO is remote and cumbersome. It should have branches in all districts. It is very surprising that the mayors and District council presidents have not urged the government to devolve SMIDO. They should not focus only in repairing pavements and roads but play a more vigorous role in village regeneration with employment opportunities. Reducing unemployment means less social problems and more economically stable families. So, come on District Councillors, it is your job to energise the local private sector too! Where is your share of community building? As representatives of the community, you have a duty to see that the benefits of the industrial revolution are shared with the people who voted for you. This is the type of ideas that MCC must champion for the sake of the country.

Another sensible strategy for the MCC is to lobby for a lower interest rate or interest free loan. All new businesses dread the claws of the taxman and interest rates. Admittedly, the Development Bank has a slightly advantageous loan system but this is still not good enough. Interest rates have to be lower to inspire the mushrooming of businesses that will stimulate the economy. Failure to energise small business development using interest rates as leverage is failing to understand the importance of regenerating economies with sustained growth. The practical measure that the small businessman needs is low interest rates, which will allow him to have sufficient capital in hand to reinvest in and expand the business. Expansion means more jobs, more revenue and more spending power for the consumer. This will also prevent the country from entering into recession, which means hardship for all concerned.

<B>Role of women entrepreneurs</B>

The MCC would be better off exploring how women can be encouraged to become entrepreneurs. There is plenty of evidence that women around the world make good business managers. The scheme in Bangladesh has seen women, with little education but plenty of initiative, succeed at transforming their families? lives as well as the villages with small loans. Small interest-free loans have empowered women as individuals and endorsed them as capable people. The Ministry for Women?s Affairs must champion schemes like that so that our women can find a more just and fulfilling place in society. What has the MCC done to promote the role of women in business? What strategy has the MCC got to encourage women to become business leaders? How many women are executive members of the MCC Board? If there aren?t any, then it is about time women were elevated to MCC Boards and given a voice at the highest level. This is the only way women will thrive in business and Mauritius will flourish.

The demise of the EPZ must be the mother of invention. The MCC should assume this independent, creative and forward-looking role that?s going begging. The MCC must show its backbone and autonomy as a free-thinking, enterprising organisation, which cares about the business community instead of being a mouthpiece for the government. How can it fulfil this role? It should establish a network of contacts with the business community and reach out to them if it is to work successfully with businesses. It should devolve its central office from the remote Port-Louis to local districts. Has the MCC got a directory of the businesses on the island? The MCC must be a point of local support to businesses and neither an ivory tower nor a Freemason exclusive society. Mauritius needs a Chamber of Commerce, which will embrace regeneration and revitalising of small businesses and invite them to be active MCC members. If the new president wants to be more responsive to the business community, hence the economy of Mauritius, then it should have a closer look at how it functions at the moment. Tuning into the business community using a ?remote control? is missing the point. The MCC should reform itself from a quango to a working organisation with vision and be close to the business community.

One of the most frustrating elements in business in Mauritius is the type and amount of bureaucracy. There is endless, repetitive and meaningless paperwork. This paperwork is punitive, archaic, expensive and wearisome. It is about time the government, especially the Trade and Industry Department and the MCC remove the bureaucratic shackles from the ankles of businesses. Furthermore, paperwork seems to empower the civil servant who suddenly becomes in charge of forms and bits of paper that they use to delay business activities. For example, it is common for civil servants to delay filling in forms, certificates and receipts and, with a big grin, they assert ?Come back tomorrow to get it?. The civil servant never considers that the businessman may have travelled miles, taken a day off work, missed valuable orders, client contacts and left his business unsupervised; he still asks him to come back tomorrow. How ignorant and inconsiderate ! If the civil servant helps a businessman, he/she is contributing to national development. There is no need to impose bureaucratic barriers to business. The MCC should work with the government to educate civil servants to be more responsive, client-focused and simply helpful. This challenge is there facing the MCC with huge writing on the wall: Business in Mauritius is being choked by bureaucrats. Here is the true and just avenue for the new MCC Presidentto make his mark. That is what he should fight for : reduce paperwork and let business breathe pure endeavour instead of burying trade and industry in a swamp of red tape.

<B>Bureaucracy choking business</B>

It is not uncommon to hear a businessman saying he had to pay for his ?file? to jump the queue. It is discomforting that people have not provided evidence to police and ICAC on whom, when and where money changes hands for moving paperwork along the process. Some say there is deliberate slowing down of the bureaucratic process to frustrate and delay so that money comes into play. If this is true, urgent investigation by the ministry is needed. On the other hand, businessmen must become more sophisticated in collecting evidence to support their claims of deliberate ?baton dans la roue? from civil servants. Tiny digital cameras are available and this technology should be used to capture ?money changing hands? and reports appropriately filed to police and ICAC for prosecution. The MCC should be more concerned with this type of cumbersome and undesirable activity, which really handicaps businesses.

The MCC should be an organisation for the business community. Although it has to work with the government, the MCC must not jump in bed with the latter. The challenges for the MCC are enormous and urgent. It should start today by getting closer to the business community, begin to remove all the present and potential shackles from businesses and instigate a climate which will regenerate small businesses and the economy of this country. Let us be crystal clear that small businesses are the central nervous system of a country.

<B>Dr Taleb DURGAHEE</B> <I>Field leader, Professional Development</I>