A lot on trade table for Delhi and Mauritius

On the back of more than trebling of bilateral trade between India and Mauritius in the last few years, business communities in both the countries are scouting for investment opportunities. While Indian realtors and academic businesses are scouting for options in Mauritius, food processing and financial service sector players in Mauritius are planning to set shops in India.

Parsvnath and education institutions like Amity University are looking at investing in Mauritius. Experts contend that realtors are looking global options owing to tight domestic liquidity scenario. “With a tight liquidity situation in India and consumers wary about big ticket expenditures, the realtors are facing slow sale and high debts. As a result, they are looking for new geographies. Mauritius being a cash-rich country is the perfect place to invest,” said a sector analyst.

The bilateral trade between India and Mauritius has increased from $207 million in 2005 06 to $818 million in 2010-11.

Mauritius, which is into the services sector, is looking at Indian co-operation on skill development. The largest rum producer of Mauritius Saint Aubin Ltee is planning to export its exotic variety of rums to India in the next six months. Another Mauritian company Bhumishq which is primarily into financial services, is planning to set up a subsidiary in Bangalore and picking up minority stake in an infrastructure company. Food and Allied group - a food procession company — is in talks with several Indian players to import fruit juice and maize and soya to produce chicken feed.
Saint Aubin, the largest rum producer in the island, plans to export this brown spirit in India in the next six months. “We are planning to export around 80,000 cases annually of premium rum through the institutional route. We will have different varieties like vanilla and spice rum,” said Patrick Guimbeau, president, Saint Aubin Ltee.

“We are in the process of setting up a subsidiary in Bangalore for e-commerce activities, we will be dealing with smart cards, e-cards, prepaid cards, debit cards and mobile cards,” said Dhaneshwar Damry, CEO, Bhumishq. The company is also diversifying its investments to the infrastructure sector. “Since we do not have the necessary expertise in the area, we prefer to be an investing partner,” Damry said.

Both the countries also seem to be fine tuning the  DTAA and assuring each other about co-operating in the investigations.