Mauritius Tops African Ease Of Business Rankings

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

22 October 2007

The government of Mauritius is to be awarded the 'Doing Business 2008: Highest Ranked country in Africa' award, after topping the rankings of the World Bank/IFC's African ease of doing business index.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Rama Sithanen will be receiving the award on behalf of the government at the official ceremony of the “Doing Business Award 2008” in Burkina Faso on the 8th of November. Four other countries will also receive awards during the ceremony, namely; Mozambique, Kenya, Ghana and Burkina Faso.

The government of Mauritius is currently bringing about a major programme of tax reform to simplify the system for businesses and investors. This three-year programme will ultimately result in a flat corporate tax rate of 15% in 2009. The reforms will also sweep away many tax credits and deductions that have tended to complicate the system, and will reduce the property registration fee to 5% of the property value.

Mauritius was ranked 27th in the global Doing Business Index, ahead of South Africa (35), Namibia (43), Botswana (51) and Kenya (72) in the sub-Saharan region.

Doing Business 2008 ranks 178 economies on the ease of doing business based on ten indicators of business registration. Since the first report in 2003, Doing Business has inspired or informed more than 113 reforms worldwide.

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