● <B>Fruitful visit to China </B> ? The prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, will come back to Mauritius with good results from his Chinese visit. China has already agreed to provide Mauritius with the mere sum of Rs 3.5 billion over the next three years ? three times more than the present aid. Most of this aid will go into infrastructure development. This official visit in China has also been an opportunity for the public and private sectors to highlight the business-friendly environment of the country. Navin Ramgoolam has insisted that Mauritius would soon be one of the best places in the world to do business. The meeting between the Mauritian PM and Chinese President Hu Jintao was another opportunity to discuss several bilateral issues.

● <B>The reasons behind medicine price rises </B>? The government is working on the setting up of a committee to study the reasons for the increase in medicine prices. The president of the pharmacists?union, Sanjay Prayag, says that the rise is due to external factors and wonders why such a committee is necessary. The more so as prices have started to stabilise for the past three months. Some people in the sector say that there are suppliers who have increased their prices. But Sanjay Prayag does not agree. ?We need to know the objectives of this committee,? he stressed.

● <B> More trained nurses in the making </B> ? Two new training schools ? one of the Indian group Apollo in collaboration with the British American Insurance and another of the Indian group Johri Company ? for nurses will be opening in Mauritius in the coming months. They are expected to train about 250 nurses every year. These two schools come just at the right time, as there is a lack of nurses at the moment. But the president of the Nurses? Union, Cassam Kureeman (picture), has made it clear that many of the trained nurses will go and work abroad. As for the lack of staff here, the Nursing School is ?trying to train more nurses?.