Good Evening to you all and thank you for your presence today for the President’s Annual Dinner of the Chinese Business Chamber.

A special thank to his Lordship the Chief Justice, Mr. Bernard Sik Yuen who has accepted to be our Guest Speaker tonight.  I take this opportunity to renew in the name of the Chinese Business Chamber and in my personal name, our sincere congratulations to you, Chief Justice Bernard Sik Yuen.  Your nomination to the highest function of the Nation’s judiciary clearly indicates the exceptional quality of your person.  Like many of us, Chief Justice Bernard Sik Yuen you are a son of the Mauritian soil born from Family of Chinese businessmen.  Sik Yeun family have for many years worked diligently, progressing from a corner shop to a multi activity group of companies not only to earn a living for their shareholders but more importantly, has now become a model of success story through entrepreneurship ingrained with Confucius values of respect, honesty, integrity, humility, brotherhood and continuous learning.  The Patriarch Mr. Sik Yuen can be very proud of you Chief Justice Bernard Sik Yuen.  He did a very good job by passing down the mentioned values to his children.  The Chinese Business community is honoured to have you in our midst tonight.

Early 2007 has been a very eventful year, we have had the pleasure and privilege to welcome several business groups, from China, Hong-Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Africa, USA and Pakistan.

Members of our executive committee and our executive secretary had done excellent and outstanding work during the visits of our business visitors.  Various working committees were successfully implemented and professional business activities programmes were also successfully organized for our visitors.  CBC has acted and will continue to act as facilitator with our numerous Government institutions for our local and foreign business. As such, CBC continue to participate regularly to several international seminars, trade fairs and in numerous working committees organized by different meetings on issues such as Trade, SADC, Seafood Hub among others.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

This year 2007 is indeed a very special year. We are celebrating the 35^th year of ties of the relation between China and Mauritius.  We, at the Chinese Business Chamber, we are sharing the joy of this celebration. At this point it is worth mentioning that our Chamber’s Constitution specifically hedges us to collaborate with any Government of the day irrespective of its political party or Alliances. We are continuing our effort to complement our Government’s efforts in promoting our country for more Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). CBC appreciates the Government’s initiatives and efforts by bringing the Tax to a level of 15%.   

We are organizing our annual business trip to China on the 28^th of October 2007.  We will be visiting Beijing, Shanghai and Guang Zhou where CBC has MOU with our China counterpart and we hope that members of our delegation will take this opportunity to explore new avenue of business and investment during this trip.

In the context of the globalised world of today, we are committed to maintain our local, regional and international business links and I hereby solicit the help of all our members to look for new avenues for the benefit of growing our business and professional activities.

My association with the Chamber dates ever since its creation. I have participated in many missions abroad and met many people in the business world.                                          

Today, I have assumed additional responsibilities. I am at the helm of this Chamber, and our objectives is to promote business relationship, not only vis-à-vis external partners and also among us.

This year has witnessed the creation of the National Chambers regrouping several local business associations.  And as such we will be called upon an additional role and more responsibility.

It is well known that somebody with responsibility, is always under pressure, but the circumstance compels us to rise to our responsibility and beyond.  For the last 6 months I have chaired our monthly meeting, taking care of our day to day work as well as special events.  This current year we have two mile stones; the actual President’s Annual Dinner and the talks on VDIS and TAPIS.

May I make a plea to the members of the Chamber, inviting them to ponder on the new activities, so that we can have many suggestions and projects, and that the Chamber can better organize its activities.  I will try to figure out a scheme, whereby you can bring forward your contribution and your time in a field of activities which you hold at heart.  This contribution can be in the nature of a talk or in the setting of small community which will be specialized in the activities of your choice.  Therefore, CBC can be a forum or a platform for you to share your ideas and innovations.  If you are interested to participate, please prepare your suggestions or projects and forward them to the CBC secretary who will arrange for you to have a chance to attend the committee meeting so that you can present and develop your plan thereon.   Hence, we are appealing to you because we would like to offer you the possibility to participate to the development of our Chamber and at the same time to provide you with the opportunity of exchanging ideas with your colleagues. 

  Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before I conclude, I would wish that each and everybody, members of the Chinese Business Chamber should not hinder from collaborating to make CBC objectives a success as we are here for our common interest.  I take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to all members, working committees, Chairman of the event committee and the secretariat for their outstanding work to make this evening so successful.

Thank you.

                                       Ah Kin Ip Kwok Sheung, GOSK.

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Address by The Honourable Ramakrishna Sithanen, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance & Economic Development on the occasion of the Chinese Business Chamber (Mtius) President Dinner 2007 on Wednesday 3 October 2007 at 19h00 at Domaine Anna, Flic-en-Flac

Mr President and Lady Jugnauth His Lordship the Chief Justice Former President Mr Karl Offmann H. E. Mr Gao Yu Chen, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China Mr Ip Kwok Sheung, President Chinese Business Chamber Excellencies, members of the Diplomatic Corps Distinguished guests Ladies and gentlemen It is indeed a great pleasure to be with all of you at the President Dinner 2007. I should like to congratulate you Mr President for the leadership you are providing to the Chinese Business Chamber and let me also congratulate all members of the Chamber for the significant role they are playing in the economy. I need not stress the contribution of the Chinese community to the economic development of our country. It is all too obvious. But let me take a few minutes of your time to dwell on the more dynamic economic environment that is unfolding and on the opportunities it brings for investment. Two years ago Government had the tough task of dealing with a precarious macroeconomic state. We were then talking of declining growth path and sunset industries, namely sugar and textile and clothing. We had to fight the Chikungunya effect on tourism. Climatic conditions, rising energy prices and other external shocks were compounding an already difficult situation. We decided to take appropriate actions to reverse the situation and set the stage for robust growth. Last year, we gave a big boost to our goal of robust growth with fundamental and far reaching reforms. Our aims were to open and restructure the economy, improve the doing business climate, consolidate public finances and empower the population as we make the transition to a globally competitive development paradigm. This year, inspired by the early positive results from our reforms we have maintained course on the new development philosophy. We have continued the business facilitation thrust of our reforms and set the economy firmly on the path towards full employment and greater social justice. The results of our actions keep coming in - more positive and faster than we initially thought. Last year we estimated it would take two to three years to reverse the declining growth trend. Yet, there are strong indications that we have already achieved this goal this year. We are a couple of years ahead on our own expectations. Mauritius is on the path of higher and robust growth. In fact, GDP is forecast to grow by 5.8% this year, 6.4% excluding sugar. It is the highest growth rate since the year 2000 and it is almost double the average for the preceding five years. The economy has turned around and 2007 is a definite trend breaker. A number of factors are contributing to this economic turn around. The reforms are definitely the basis for the economic revival. But equally important is that the world around us continues to change in a very positive way for us, unfolding a number of great prospects for Mauritius. The reforms have positioned us to leverage these opportunities. There is first of all the economic renewal in the region. Africa is probably experiencing its longest period of high economic growth in recent history. In fact, Africa is contributing to global economic growth and not only benefiting from it. It is generating its own dynamism. This opens up vast new opportunities for Mauritius to do business in Africa which our enterprises should not overlook. My message to the Chamber and its members is let us look west, but not only to Europe and America but also to Africa. Mauritian enterprises, in particular those that are in local manufacturing, should realize that the future of businesses in Mauritius is not its market of 1.2 million consumers but the larger market of 500 million people in COMESA and SADC countries. The region is getting more and more integrated and we must develop the new mindset that Africa is our market. It is a paradox that we promote Mauritius abroad to foreign investors as a business bridge to Africa and yet our own enterprises are not using that bridge enough. We are conscious that it will take some adapting and investment in promotion, marketing, market research, and facilitation on the logistics side, among others, to tap this larger market. But there are a number of ways to access the African market. One is through joint ventures and strategic partnerships with foreign firms that have expertise and experience in exports. And our enterprises can make use of the various facilities and programmes that Government is implementing to assist firms, in particular SMEs that want to export their products. A second major development in the global economic landscape is the new south south cooperation. China, and India are developing a significant economic presence in Africa. Thus Mauritius is getting a unique opportunity to realize its vision of being a business bridge between Asia and Africa. This is happening already. Tianli is a concrete example. There are also Indian investments in Mauritius that have been motivated by the possibilities for doing business in Africa. The expanding economic space in Africa gives us a unique platform to develop our export sector further, to integrate our local manufacturing sector into the regional and global economy and also attract FDI from around the world. On the other hand the African focus of Indian and Chinese foreign investment policy opens vast opportunities for wider and deeper involvement of these two awakening giants in our economy. That is why Government has decided to integrate these two significant developments into our development strategy. In fact the future course of our development will de determined among other things, by the continued success of our reforms, by completing the transition to a globally competitive economy, raising productivity of our labor force, tapping fully the wider market of Africa and developing the entire potential of Mauritius as a business bridge between Africa and Asia. And so let me end by saying that the Chinese Business Chamber and indeed all other trade and business organizations can make significant contributions to achieve these goals. The Chinese Business Chamber has a wide membership and broad international network that it can use to promote the national objectives. Government will continue to support organizations such as your Chamber, for development is more and more a collective effort. There are limitless possibilities for us in the new south south cooperation and in the relationship that is being woven between Asia and Africa. If we are united in our efforts to tap these new opportunities we can surely make the maximum for our businesses and for our country. I should like to wish the Chamber and its members continued success in meeting your objectives. I thank you for your attention

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HARD  WORK

        When I was approached by my friend Wilfrid with an invitation to dine and a request to make tonight’s speech I was in a quandary.  Accepting the invitation was a simple affair – complying with the request was obviously a different cup of tea!  “What shall I speak about?”, sounded my worried demand of particulars.  “Speak about hard work” was the spontaneous answer.

So, when I look around this distinguished gathering of obviously successful people, Your Excellency the President of the Republic, Honourable Ministers, prosperous businessmen and professionals, I rejoice.  But I also see people who are much younger than myself, people in their 30’s who belong to the same age group as my elder children.  An age group which has reaped the benefit of the generosity, dedication and caring of your own parents to become what you are today.  You have had it easier and it is quite legitimate that you want to thrive and aim for even higher and better attainment. 

But permit me to recall things you have not known, things which your parents or people in my age group and above would know better.  I want to refer to the early days when our forefathers reached Mauritius as immigrants and had to strive hard to eke out a living.  To educate their children, your grand parents had to make great sacrifices.  To send their children abroad for tertiary education in order that they may become the renowned and reputed professionals that they are today your grand parents had to work even harder and economise every cent.

So let me tell you of the story of one person I have known who is so typical of the Chinese Immigrant who came to Mauritius without any worldly possession and who, through sheer hard work and dedication, made a position for himself and his family.  That person came to Mauritius in the early years of the last century having travelled from Meixian via Swatow to Port Louis.  It was a long and difficult journey especially that he had to travel in the ship’s hold – He used to say he travelled 3^rd class -  When he reached Mauritius, he was barely 13 years old, still a youth.  He was promptly despatched by his severe, but well meaning father to work as a “marmiton” in a friend’s shop.  That was some hard training “à l’école de la vie”!  For fear that the young boy would behave like a little boss had he stayed to work in his father’s own shop, he was sent to learn his apprenticeship elsewhere.

The first letter which he received from his mum from China, he read it with hot tears rolling down his cheeks.  Pangs of home sickness!  A “moustiquaire”, the artefact used in those days against malaria and perhaps Chikunguya too, was the perfect screen he used from the searching glares of his fellow shop attendants. .  “I hope that you are well and you are happy in your new environment”, wrote the mother.  How could he restrain his sobs reading his mother’s well wishes and admonitions coming from so many thousand of miles away?  Man had not yet invented Air Mauritius, Emtel or Cellplus or the internet!

After many years learning creole and some bhojpuri and building his HR skills came his promotion from a trainee to that of Manager of a small shop, owned by his father in a remote seaside village.  Those were the days when the “commerce de détails” carried its lots of “détails”.   Salted fish had to be chopped in a certain way, in a certain size – only flesh, you were the loser; too much bones, you had no client.  The famous “boule tamarin” had to be rolled up and wrapped in the famous “papier glaçé”, which came from cigarettes’ packs; I won’t say what use was made of the single ply soft paper used to wrap each apple or orange then imported into Mauritius.  We were far from the insipid polystyrene trays protecting the fruits but which now pollute our environment: There was no wastage: everything was processed and re-processed. 

Then came the birth of the children and their becoming of school age.  The seaside village with all its quietude and gentle people no longer satisfied the stringent conditions he had placed upon himself to foster the well being of his family.  Two conditions were imposed for the next location, namely: the place must be provided with electricity and must have good school facilities.  That was why the man of vision moved to town with his family.  I believe you all suspect by now who is the person, a small episode of whose life story I am revealing now.

The same story could well apply to any immigrant coming to Mauritius from Meixian or Bihar.  It just happens that the story I am telling you is the one I know best since it has been related to me by someone who was close to me.  I could go on for hours, telling you the history of that man.  I could perhaps write a book in the same vein as “Kunta Kinté”  the hero in Alex Hailey’s book, “Roots”,  but it would not serve any useful purpose for tonight’s address.  The message I want to convey is that the forefathers of practically all the Mauritians at tonight’s gathering will have shared the same difficult background and if we are successful to-day, we owe it to the dedication, hard work and vision of people of extraordinary calibre.  So by paying tribute to your success and hoping for the success of the coming, or the future generations, let us not forget to pay a very special tribute to your forefathers who have inculcated in you the high sense of values which bond and strengthen the family unit and build up a nation.

I believe it is a good thing that we recall now and then our modest origin and background to remind us to be thankful for all the blessings that have come our way.

But Mr Chairman, forgive me if what I am now going to say is considered as somewhat of a digression.  I believe that your Association has sufficient material and financial capabilities as well as the necessary moral ethos to embark into a new line of activity which I beseech you to take up.  I believe there are quite a few pockets of poverty in Mauritius and credible people engaged in social service speak of the great sufferings of many of our compatriots who are out of work or who find it difficult to make ends meet, specially with the recent flaring up in the price of imported basic commodities, albeit through factors beyond our control.  Mr Chairman, I believe your Association will show leadership if it could gather its thinking wizards to find ways and means to create employment spearheaded by the members of your association; and perhaps to set up in parallel a trust fund to help those who are inept to work and whose entire dependence on the social security barely see them through with one meal a day.  Last month I was in Kenya for a few days.  A friend took me to visit a factory which is labour intensive with a high value added component but yet requiring no specialized skills.  That business is related to the tourist industry.  Unfortunately I understand that my whole time is devoted to the service of government so that I can hardly set up shop in Mauritius.  But this does not prevent me from selling the idea to any potential industrialist within our midst.  If this is done I could even invest part of my lump sum when I retire, provided our Minister of Finance is generous enough!  I thank you for your attention.   

Y.K.J. Bernard Yeung Sik Yuen, G.O.S.K.