It's Not The Geography, Stupid

A lot of energy is being wasted on one of our latest fantasies. That we are going to be the bridge between Asia and Africa. That we will be intercepting a lot of the flows and the business between the two continents. Between African Lions and Asian Tigers. That our geographic location gives us a competitive advantage just like Singapore.

It's an awesome strategy if you haven't looked at a map in a long time or don't have an internet connection. Because otherwise you would have known that there is a huge difference between being lost in the open seas and sitting pretty near the narrowest part of the Strait of Malacca. Maybe you are not to be blamed. As you still can't tell the difference between a weak Euro and a strong rupee. Or between rent-seeking and competitiveness.

Asia doesn't need our permission to go into Africa. Because it's already there. 

After Massively Creating Poverty, Minister Now Aiming to Kill the Economy

For an open and small economy like Mauritius if there is one concept that we should focus all of our energies on it has to be our competitiveness. Not something Sithanen has on his mind though.

After having made an indecent gift of Rs5 billion to a industry that has been dead for ages, he now seems to want to shut down Mauritius Inc. by not capping how much money government makes on rising fuel prices through VAT.

That's on top of uncompetitive electricity prices that reflect the vested interests of a few rent-seekers and public investments that have declined for three straight years in real terms. Which means that we should expect more misery and trouble until he is shown the exit.