The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized a Special Interactive Session with His Excellency, Mr. Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory, Hon'ble Vice President of Republic of Mauritius on 17th April 2017 at The Chamber premises. The session was graced by His Excellency Mr. Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory, Hon'ble Vice President of Republic of Mauritius and Mr. Deven Coopoosamy, Partner - Client Relationship CORPORATE, Rogers Capital, Mauritius. The audience included important stakeholders and members of the Chamber. The objective of the session was to explore bilateral business opportunities between India and Mauritius in general and building new bonds between Kolkata/West Bengal and Mauritius in particular.

It was the first ever business forum His Excellency graced in the City.

His Excellency Mr. Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory and Mr. Deven Coopoosamy took a walk down the Calcutta Gallery accompanied by Mr. Sutanu Ghosh, President, BCC&I, Mr. Subhodip Ghosh, Director General BCC&I and Ms. Angana Guha Roy Chowdhury, Deputy Director, BCC&I, following which the interactive session commenced.

Mr. Sutanu Ghosh, in his welcome speech, highlighted the Indo-Mauritius bilateral relations and also introduced the Hon’ble Vice President to the audience. Mr. Abhishek Basu, Executive Trustee of Basu Foundation for the Arts, the cultural partner of BCC&I for this event, showcased the gamut of interesting work that The Basu Foundation had been doing on connecting people through art, through an audio visual presentation,.

An Introduction of Business Opportunities along with the Ease of Doing Business in Mauritius was presented by Mr. Deven Cooposamy with the help of an audio visual presentation.

Subsequently, His Excellency Mr. Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory addressed the gathering by elaborating on the ideal environment for doing business in the island nation and the bilateral relationship between India and Mauritius. The Hon’ble Vice President mentioned that Mauritius had a skilled workforce and modern infrastructure for setting up factories. He shared how Mauritius used to be a mono-crop model economy at the time of their Independence when sugar used to constitute 90% of their trade which accounted for only 1% of their GDP, and how the Government now envisions raising Mauritius to the level of a high income economy as part of the Vision 2030 exercise. His Excellency spoke of the trade links Mauritius has had with India, where he mentioned certain facts like - India has been the largest exporter of goods and services to Mauritius and how India and Mauritius have been sharing strong trade relations even in the recent past, and how the double tax avoidance convention has helped play a key role in enhancing the financial statistics.

To highlight the strong Indian influence on Mauritius, His Excellency Mr. Vyapoory named several places/monuments that were named after famous Indians including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore. The relations between the armed forces of India and Mauritius have also been good. The famous Mauritius navy ship, Barracuda was constructed by an Indian shipbuilder, while even today India carries out patrols and surveillances with Mauritius.

India is Mauritius's leading trading partner and has been the largest exporter of goods and services to the country since 2007. His Excellency highlighted the joint operations that both the countries are carrying out presently, with a reference to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India His Excellency Shri Narendra Modi's Mauritius visit in 2015. His Excellency complimented the Hon’ble Prime Minister for redefining the bilateral relationship between the two countries during his visit.

The proposed Indo-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement is expected to be signed later this year as both countries finalised the areas of exchange, he added. He said that the two sides had agreed upon the areas in which the agreement would be implemented. Areas which have been identified are financial services, ICT, health, education, R&D and construction. He said that the agreement would lead to an expansion of trade on both sides and enhanced investment besides enhanced economic relations. Sectors which offered investment opportunities to Indian companies were ICT and BPO, banking services and insurance. He also mentioned that investments in Mauritius will give Indian companies preferential market access to USA and to Africa.

Regarding the Direct Tax Avoidance Convention (DTAC) between India and Mauritius, he said that it was due to this agreement that the cumulative equity inflow to India till April, 2015 was to the tune of USD87 bn. He said that India had extended several lines of credit to Mauritius, the last one being USD500 million announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March, 2015. Mauritius is also ready to offer financial incentives to the Indian film industry, he observed. His Excellency thanked The Bengal Chamber for providing a relevant platform for exploring bilateral trade and B2B interfaces.

Mr. D N Mittra, Chairperson, Legal Committee and Member, Managing Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry delivered the formal Vote of Thanks.