The Export Processing Zone (EPZ) benefited significantly from the trading arrangements and the  protectionist policies of the EC and the US. However, restrictions mandated by these trade regimes,  reinforced under GATT, may constrain future growth in the export manufacturing sector. Mauritian  investors are acutely conscious of this and have started diversifying their activities and their markets.

The manufacturing boom over the past fifteen years has nonetheless been remarkable and has  largely been responsible for what is rightly termed an economic miracle. Incentives in the form of tax  holidays, exemptions from import duties and from some aspects of the regulatory regime, as well as  preferential credit were provided to foreign and domestic investors who would wholly specialise in  exporting. The volume of EPZ activity expanded very fast, benefiting as it did from high profits recycled  from the sugar industry. The success of EPZ industries has been such that they have absorbed the  labour surplus; indeed there is now a labour shortage in the island and several enterprises have  resorted to migrant labour to expand production.

The EPZ is now at a turning point: GATT has eroded its preferential access to EC and US  markets and it has to face rising labour costs which threaten to reduce Mauritius's international  competitiveness. Investors have started responding to this situation by looking for new markets, by  delocalising production to lower-cost economies, and by recycling profits in the services and financial  sectors.

COMPNET EXPORTS LTD.

Address : 27, Mgr. Gonin St, Port Louis, Mauritius

Activity : Textile Products (Men's, Women & Children's Garments, pareo, and more....)

URL : COMPNET_EXPORT

LAGTEX TEXTILE LTD.
Address : Saint Denis Street, Port-Louis, Mauritius

Activity : Quality Control & Buying Services

URL : www.maurinet.com/lagtex.html

AFASIA Group of Companies-Mauritius
Address : Bell Village, Plaine Lauzan, Port-Louis, Mauritius

Phone : (230) 208-3559
Activity : Dyeing Factory

EUROTEX (MTIUS) LTD.

Address : Duplin Street, Curepipe, Mauritius

Phone : (230) 674-2618