The Big Shift; In Focus: Mauritius
CURNOW: It may only be a tiny island nation, but Mauritius is one of Africa's success stories, as one of the more competitive economies on the continent. Well, our guest on FaceTime this week is the Mauritian, Saleem Beebejaun. He heads up the company, British and American Investment. And he chatted to me about opportunities and challenges on the island.</s>SALEEM BEEBEEJAUN, CHAIRMAN, BRITISH AMERICAN INVESTMENT: It's tiny, but it's on its way stay to sophistication, so you need to be very present, you need to be very close to your -- to your customer base. It's a very well-educated population, so they're very much aware of what happens in the world, very well connected to the first world. So you need to be there with them on the cutting edge.</s>CURNOW: When you say it's connected, I think that -- that's perhaps, when people look at Mauritius, physically, you sort of bridge Africa and -- and the East. And I think business-wise, Mauritius, as a country, is trying to position itself as sort of the bridge into investing into Africa.</s>BEEBEEJAUN: We are part of Africa, clearly. And we are very active on the African front. But our population comes from diverse, different areas, from Asia, from Europe and from Africa. Our cuisine, what we would call Creole cuisine, is very much French inspired, with a touch of Indian. But we also have Indian cuisine as our cuisine. We tend to do business naturally more, in the old days, with Europe, because we -- we were French and then British. Nowadays, we are positioning ourselves to be the hub, in effect, between Asia and Africa, mostly targeting China and India, assisting in providing a basis and the support to be able to go into Africa.</s>CURNOW: And why -- why is that needed?</s>BEEBEEJAUN: We believe that there could be cultural issues, which we think we -- we are well positioned to apprehend (ph) and transcend. We think we have very good links with all the different countries. In a way we are mutual. We blend in. We understand the needs of -- of each one of the different players. And we are also the tragedy of the hyphen between the cultures, whether it's economic, whether it's cultural.</s>CURNOW: Mauritius has to make itself relevant in -- in -- in the global sphere, particularly when it comes to trying to at least capture some of this -- this growth that has been seen in Africa. Do you think you can do it or is it -- is it something you're still trying really hard to achieve?</s>BEEBEEJAUN: Well, I think we are -- we can do it, because we have -- the first thing that we have, I think we need to sort of remember, Mauritius has no natural resources, except our beaches and -- and the sea. We have nothing else. The big strength that we have is our population, our people. And our people are well-educated, travel a lot, are very disciplined, are very hard-working and are very flexible in the sense that they would be in Mauritius, they could come to Africa, they could come to Europe and</s>CURNOW: But multiculturalism --</s>BEEBEEJAUN: There is multiculturalism --</s>CURNOW: -- is --</s>BEEBEEJAUN: Yes.</s>CURNOW: -- is, for you, the biggest asset. And you're saying, listen, there -- there's a lot of stuff in Africa that people might not understand, whether it's regulations, whether it's laws, whether it's cultural things. And the Mauritians are the ones to open the door, essentially?</s>BEEBEEJAUN: We could open the doors, because we're very adaptable. We are adapted, we are flexible and -- and we also have experience in many things that are yet to be done in Africa.</s>CURNOW: You've done very specific things in terms of making Mauritius more accessible to business, haven't you?</s>BEEBEEJAUN: We have really opened up. It now takes very little for an expatriate to come to Mauritius. The qualifying rules are very low. We have opened up such that when the people do come down, within three days, the permits are approved. All paperwork is done. We --</s>CURNOW: So the ease of doing business --</s>BEEBEEJAUN: The ease of doing business --</s>CURNOW: -- you think is --</s>BEEBEEJAUN: -- is there.</s>CURNOW: -- the key to doing business?</s>BEEBEEJAUN: Big time. Big time. It's the ease of doing business. And it's the fact that when the person does come down, that they are accepted within the community. And the facilities and the structure is there and the process of going through setting up the business itself is not as tedious as it would for me elsewhere.</s>CURNOW: And would you say investors are -- are encouraged by that?</s>BEEBEEJAUN: I would say we have, actually, been quite successful. We have a lot investors from Europe and even from South Africa, who are actually now coming to Mauritius --</s>CURNOW: There's a huge interest --</s>BEEBEEJAUN: -- to set up --</s>CURNOW: -- in South Africa</s>BEEBEEJAUN: -- a huge interest --</s>CURNOW: -- setting up in -- in</s>BEEBEEJAUN: A huge interest. And, actually, in some areas, we probably have a bit more South Africans that Mauritanians now, in the sense that there's been a lot of South Africans coming to establish themselves in Mauritius as a base. And many of them were in South Africa, but have also been working in Africa, not only South Africa. And for us, it -- it's a -- it's a -- it's an added benefit, in the sense that we get expertise that we wouldn't have had. We have a different way of looking at things, which eventually is shared in the community. And it really helps, again, adds value to what we already have in Mauritius. And we are very welcoming for that.</s>CURNOW: Saleem Beebejaun there, of British and American Investment. Now, here's what's trending this week.</s>CURNOW: You can catch up with all of our stories and interviews online at CNN.com/marketplaceafrica. You can also follow our links to our Twitter and Facebook pages. But until next week, for me, Robyn Curnow, here in Johannesburg, thanks for watching. END