Former Mauritian minister coming to Zanzibar

Dar es Salaam. Former Finance Minister and deputy Prime Minister for Mauritius, Dr Ramakrishna Sithanen will from next week visit Zanzibar where he is expected to address the business community in the Isles, including 40 members of the Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors (Zati).

Dr Sithanen, touted as a leader who played a key role in transforming Mauritius, is also scheduled to meet prominent government officials during his visit, according to information obtained from Zanzibar’s major tourism investment organisations, Pennyroyal Gibraltar and Zanzibar Amber Resort.

Talks with the tourism investors on Wednesday next week, will be centred on the topic, “‘Transforming Zanzibar by promoting Foreign Direct Investment to Eradicate Poverty.”

Members of the Zanzibar National Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (ZNCCIA) and the Zanzibar Association of Tour Operators (Zato) are expected to attend.

The Director of Pennyroyal Gibraltar Ltd and Zanzibar Amber Resort, Saleh Said, told journalists on Wednesday that, the visit of the Indian Ocean Island leader aims at putting Zanzibar on a strategic position to follow in Mauritius’ footsteps in eradicating poverty and building a stronger economy through boosting the tourism sector.

The GDP (PPP) per capita of Mauritius, a country with an estimated resident population of 1.2 million as of December 2016, was over $16,820, one of the highest in Africa. Zanzibar’s population is about 1.3 million.

The World Bank’s 2016 Ease of Doing Business Index ranks Mauritius 49th worldwide out of 189 economies in terms of ease of doing business. Since independence in 1968, Mauritius has developed from a low-income, agriculture-based economy to a middle-income diversified economy, based on tourism, and other businesses.