The Mauritius Freeport has been recognized by the Financial Times’ FDI Magazine as the best free zone in Africa and the Indian Ocean Commission region for the second year in a row.
It also ranks tenth (10th) worldwide in the Global Free Zone of the Year Award 2022.
These prestigious awards bear testimony to the position of the Mauritius Freeport as the region’s leading free zone.
The Mauritius Freeport also received awards in the following categories:
- Highly commended for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa;
- Highly commended for large tenants in Africa; and
- Honorable mention for tenants’ work in fighting COVID-19, leadership, digitization of services and logistics adjustment.
For this year’s awards, government entities and investment promotion bodies were invited to complete a survey detailing a zone’s attractiveness, facilities and incentives offered to investors.
A panel comprising Financial Times’ specialists and external judges rated each Free Zone based on a methodology used to assess core growth of the free zones as well as their ecosystems and related initiatives, such as business and marketing strategy, infrastructure improvements, COVID-response and promotion of sustainability.
In his thank you message, the CEO of the Economic Development Board (EDB), Mr. Ken Poonoosamy, stated that freeport operators can take advantage of bilateral and multi-lateral trade agreements such as the CECPA with India, FTA with China, AfCFTA, COMESA, SADC, AGOA and EPA in order to tap into a market of nearly 70 percent of the world’s population.
This international recognition also highlights the significant public-private sector partnership in the economic development of the Mauritius Freeport
The state-of-the-art infrastructure (over 500,000 m2 of declared Free Zones and high-quality services) shows the resilience and success of Mauritius as the preferred Freeport & Logistics platform in the Indian Ocean and Southern and Eastern African regions.
