Mauritius improved its ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2013 survey from the 23rd to the 19th position.

Africa Investor has conferred the best Finance Minister of Africa 2012 Award on the Finance Minister Xavier-Luc Duval, in recognition of his leadership in the financial domain. Earlier in July Duval was made African Finance Minister of the year 2012 by the African Leadership Magazine.

At its meeting on Monday afternoon, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Mauritius decided by a majority vote to maintain the Key Repo Rate at 4.90 per cent per annum.

Over 300 international and local participants attended the Private Equity Mauritius (PEM) 2012 conference, a two-day event hosted by the Board of Investment last week, in collaboration with the private sector financial services stakeholders.

Latest data release from Statistics Mauritius indicate that total international trade for the second quarter of 2012 reached Rs 60,558 million, i.e. 9.7% higher than the previous quarter and 13.9% higher than the corresponding quarter of 2011.

MMauritius has signed a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with the Republic of Nigeria. The DTA was signed last Friday at Le Maritim Hotel in Balaclava by Finance Minister Xavier-Luc Duval and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for Economy of Nigeria, Dr. Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Eweala.

Alteo Limited, the new resulting entity following the merger of Flacq United Estates Limited (FUEL) and Deep River-Beau Champ (DRBC), held a ceremony on Tuesday 7 August at the Labourdonnais hotel to mark its entry on the Official market of the Stock Exchange. The market quotation was celebrated by a symbolic ringing of a bell.

French group SAPMER intends to invest about Rs 8 to Rs 10 billion in the fisheries sector, Fisheries Minister Nicholas Von Mally announced last week.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed on Monday by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) and the Mauritius Computing Services Ltd at the Industrial Zone in Coromandel.

Win lots of prizes at the Mauritius Shopping Fiesta, from 29 June to 5 August! Amongst the Star Prizes being offered, are a BMW ‘3 Series Cabriolet’ car, a Porsche Cayman, two Nissan Micra and a Derbi Xtreme motorcycle. To top it all off, all taxes are included.