Doing Business Reforms

Government’s drive to digitalise public services was further achieved with the successful deployment of the National Electronic Licensing System in 2018 and of the progressive automation of various business-related licenses. Till date, 12 licenses of varying complexity (and application volume) have been automated. Construction related licenses such as Building and Land Use Permit, the Morcellement Permit, Environment Impact Assessment and Land Conversion Permit were prioritised during the first phase of implementation.

These digitalisation successes have contributed to Mauritius scoring highly in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, the latest edition of which was published in 2019. Mauritius was ranked 13th among 190 economies in terms of ease of doing business, and more particularly in construction permitting where Mauritius is now ranked 8th globally.

To date:

• More than 60 000 applications have been received on the platform;
• On average 500 new business users (public) register on the platform and to date more than 18 000 users have been registered.

More importantly, the usefulness and potential of NELS was demonstrated during the confinement period. While Mauritius was under full lockdown twice during 2020, key public sector agencies hooked to the system were able to continue their operations amidst health and safety restrictions.

The EDB has spearheaded the Business Process-Re-Engineering project to streamline some 165 business-related licenses administered by 14 Ministries and corresponding Public Sector Agencies (PSAs).   The project was successfully completed on 25 July 2019 and recommendations for streamlining of licenses were successfully implemented and enacted through the Business Facilitations (Misc. Provisions) Act 2020.

The streamlining was also carried out in a spirit of forthcoming automation on the National Electronic Licensing System (NELS).