Mauritius in an Era of Globalization: A Model for Catch-Up Development?
Koop, Kirsten
Mauritius in an Era of Globalization: A Model for Catch-Up Development? - 2004.
52
Mauritius is often quoted as one of the rare examples of successful integration of a country of the South in the global market. Indeed, in 1980 direct foreign investments, especially in the textile industry, were able to set in motion extraordinary economic development on the island and poverty diminished considerably. The freeing-up of the old Lomé Convention and the dismantling of the Multi-Fibre Agreement until 2005, agreements which had protected Mauritian exports from other countries of the South, have recently engendered a structural crisis in the sugar-refining and textile industries. Under the new free-market conditions, these two labour-intensive local sectors are no longer competitive on the global market. Constant job losses in these two crucial sectors of the Mauritian economy have not up to now been compensated for by development of the service sector, such as tourism and information technology. Moreover, global competition pressure has tended to create an increasing number of insecure and low-paid jobs.The result of this economic trend is a considerable increase in unemployment and a growing mass of “working poor” – a well-known phenomenon in the industrialized countries directly linked to the intensifying of business competition. Consequently, in Mauritius poverty is on the rise again. For a large segment of the population, the prosperity of the 1980s was nothing more than an ephemeral situation. A true process of “catch-up development”, a development paradigm still alive today, has not been achieved.
Mauritius in an Era of Globalization: A Model for Catch-Up Development? - 2004.
52
Mauritius is often quoted as one of the rare examples of successful integration of a country of the South in the global market. Indeed, in 1980 direct foreign investments, especially in the textile industry, were able to set in motion extraordinary economic development on the island and poverty diminished considerably. The freeing-up of the old Lomé Convention and the dismantling of the Multi-Fibre Agreement until 2005, agreements which had protected Mauritian exports from other countries of the South, have recently engendered a structural crisis in the sugar-refining and textile industries. Under the new free-market conditions, these two labour-intensive local sectors are no longer competitive on the global market. Constant job losses in these two crucial sectors of the Mauritian economy have not up to now been compensated for by development of the service sector, such as tourism and information technology. Moreover, global competition pressure has tended to create an increasing number of insecure and low-paid jobs.The result of this economic trend is a considerable increase in unemployment and a growing mass of “working poor” – a well-known phenomenon in the industrialized countries directly linked to the intensifying of business competition. Consequently, in Mauritius poverty is on the rise again. For a large segment of the population, the prosperity of the 1980s was nothing more than an ephemeral situation. A true process of “catch-up development”, a development paradigm still alive today, has not been achieved.
Réseaux sociaux