Mauritius provides a business-friendly economy to international clients wanting to do business into and out of African and Asian markets. Licences for Mauritian Global Business Companies (GBC) are applied for through the Financial Services Commission (FSC), and these companies aim at doing commerce, trade and investments globally and, in particular, with India and South Africa.

Their compliance and reporting regimes are similar to those of Hong Kong or United Kingdom companies. The consolidation of a legal and fiscal framework, through the enactment of modern and user-friendly legislation, has turned Mauritius into an internationally recognised offshore centre that seeks to facilitate business whilst upholding global best practice principles.

An ideal structure for African companies would be to establish a regional holding company (RHCs) in Mauritius to manage their operating subsidiaries in Africa, India and Asia. Such RHCs could also provide bundled group services, such as group shared services, financing, cash management, captive insurance, research and development and intellectual property generation outside of Africa. African companies could also setup operations in Mauritius to undertake supply chain management, such as, inventory management, contract manufacturing and distribution services.

For the third successive year, the exotic island destination of Mauritius ranks highest in the region on overall regulatory ease of doing business. More significantly on a global scale, the island is ranked 20th among 183 economies and continues to earn accolades as a top global financial centre.