<B>A French trip full of economic hopes</B>

Even though the prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, is not back from Paris with a suitcase full of concrete agreements, the promises made by President Jacques Chirac and the members of the French government are? promising. The aim of the PM?s trip was to make sure Mauritius benefits from French support in its economic restructuring. This has obviously been achieved! The PM made it clear that Mauritius was faced with a three-fold external shock ? drop in sugar export prices, end of quotas on textiles and rise of fuel prices on the world market ? and that it would need help to come out of these hard times. The French president has clearly expressed the intention of France not only to help the country but also to support such initiatives with other international institutions and European institutions. ?Mauritius deserves to be fully supported by the international community,? Jacques Chirac declared after his meeting with Navin Ramgoolam.

As Mauritius has already identified the amount needed to restructure its economy ? up to Rs 150 billion over the next ten years ? the PM was able to give a precise idea of what Mauritius was expecting from the French authorities. Mauritius seems to be asking for a 50 million euro envelope from France every year over the next ten years. Although no agreement was signed between the two countries, external signs tend to show that Mauritius can rely on his French partner.

The Agence française de Développement (AFD) will come to Mauritius in May to assess the amount of financial aid it will bring to the country. Moreover, even though AFD is supposed to help only the poorest countries, it may make an exception for Mauritius and start its local activities again as from September. The Mauritian delegation ? made up of members of the public and private sectors and involving the ministers of Finance, Rama Sithanen, and Foreign Affairs, Madan Dulloo ? also seized the opportunity of this trip to have a working session with the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF).

That meeting, where the Mauritian delegation was happy to see the interest and enthusiasm of French companies for Mauritius, was the occasion for the PM to highlight the new sectors Mauritius is developing. He made it clear that Mauritius would happily welcome investors in its new economic sectors such as light engineering, pharmaceuticals or Information and Communication Technologies, only to name a few.

The visit of the Mauritian delegation, which ended with a tour of Airbus factory in Toulouse, appeared as a breath of fresh air in those difficult times Mauritius is facing? A pause before the government takes the economy in hand and starts cutting costs to strengthen public finance?