L’HEBDOMADAIRE ÉLECTRONIQUE GRATUITÉDITION 151 – VENDREDI 23 JUIN 2017

DR. STERGOMENA LAWRENCE TAX, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY - SADC

“Intra-African trade is projected to rise to 52 percent by 2040”

ÉDITION 298 – VENDREDI 10 JUILLET 2020

Tariff profile 2020 of Mauritius

WORLD TRADE ORGANISATIONL’HEBDOMADAIRE DIGITAL GRATUIT

On 6th of July, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) published the latest version of Tariff Profiles across the world. This publication covers the latest available tariff data (either 2019 or 2018) and the latest available import data (either 2018 or 2017). The tariff information provided for the European Union covers its 28 member states as of 31 December 2019. The United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union as of 1 February 2020. The European Union and the United Kingdom have communicated that during the transition period, which ends on 31 December 2020, European Union law, with a few limited exceptions, continues to be applicable to and in the United Kingdom. During that transition period, the EU most-favoured nation (MFN) applied and preferential tariffs continue to be applicable in the United Kingdom.

Big Four told to outline plans for audit split by October

ACCOUNTING AND AUDIT

After Wirecard: is it time to audit the auditors?

POST SCRIPTUM

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BIZ ALERT3

Starting this year, 2020, 7th July has been earmarked a special day for the commem-oration of the African integration and the

establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) under the African Un-ion. The establishment of the AfCFTA is a key milestone in Africa’s continental integration that will greatly contribute to the realisation of our founding forefathers’ dream of a united, and prosperous Africa, once fully operational-ised.

The AfCFTA brings together all 55-member states of the African Union, covering a market of more than 1.2 billion people and a com-bined gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$3.4 trillion. It aims to create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments. It also aims to expand intra-Af-rican trade through better harmonization and coordination of trade liberalization and facilita-tion across the RECs and Africa in general. If implemented effectively, it will enhance com-petitiveness at the industry and enterprise level, through the facilitative cross border infrastruc-ture; as well as, the exploitation of opportuni-ties for scale production, continental market access, and effective allocation of resources.

The AfCFTA is also to address fragmen-tation of the continent’s trading system that currently operates under exclusive blocs, which has always raised concerns over the distortions imposed by multiple and overlapping member-ship.

The continent’s participation in the global

value chain remains minimal, with its export basket dominated by primary commodities and natural resources, accounting for less than 3 percent of world trade. In addition, intra-Afri-can trade continues to trail other regions, which have drawn on vibrant cross-border trade to sustain growth and economic development, as well as integrate into the global economy. Cur-rently, at 15 percent, intra-Africa trade com-pares unfavourably to Europe (68 percent), North America (37 percent), and Latin Amer-ica (20 percent). Under the AfCFTA, intra-Af-rican trade is projected to rise to 52 percent by 2040, and Africa will have a combined con-sumer and business spending of $6.7 trillion by 2030. AfCFTA will also have a significant im-pact on manufacturing and industrial develop-ment, tourism, intra-African cooperation, and economic transformation. The significance of the AfCFTA, therefore, cannot be overempha-sized.

As a regional economic community and one of the eight pillars of the African Union, SADC has made tremendous progress in its integration agenda and across all the eight di-

mensions of integration. The Region achieved FTA status in 2008, which has seen intra-re-gional trade grow to about 22% of the region’s total trade. At the same time, the share of the Region’s trade with the rest of Africa stood at 22% as of 2019. Having achieved FTA status, and recognizing the challenged associated with multiple membership, SADC is part of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) which was officially launched in June 2015.

The COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area brings together 26-member states, covering a market of more than 700 million people and a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$1.4 trillion.

SADC joins hands with the rest of the con-tinent to commemorate this special day - the African Integration Day. As we commemorate the African Integration Day, and the establish-ment of the AfCTA, we should not lose sight of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area, which is a one of the major build-ing blocks towards the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“Intra-African trade is projected to rise to 52 percent by 2040”

DR. STERGOMENA LAWRENCE TAX, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY - SADC

Les gouvernements et les partenaires au développement doivent intervenir de manière mieux coordonnée, plus ciblée et plus rapide pour limiter efficacement les répercussions de la crise de Covid-19. Près de 49 millions d’Africains pourraient être plongés dans l’extrême pauvreté à cause de la pandémie, en particulier en Afrique de l’Ouest et en Afrique centrale.

L’Afrique devrait connaître un rebond de 3% de sa croissance économique en 2021 si les gouvernements parviennent à juguler la propagation de la pandémie de Covid-19, selon le supplément aux « Perspectives économi-ques en Afrique 2020 » publié le 7 juillet par la Banque africaine de développement.

Dans une évaluation socio-économique complète de l’impact de la pandémie, la

Banque a déclaré que la croissance devrait rebondir à 3% en 2021, contre -3,4% dans le pire des scénarios pour 2020.

Ces prévisions sont contenues dans un supplément aux Perspectives économiques en Afrique de la Banque, publié le 30 janvier. La croissance de l’Afrique était alors prévue à 3,9 % en 2020 et à 4,1 % en 2021.

Le supplément avertissait que les per-spectives de croissance pour 2021 et au-delà dépendraient largement de l’efficacité des gouvernements africains à aplatir la courbe de l’épidémie et des politiques de réouver-ture des économies.

La propagation du coronavirus en Afri-que dépend en grande partie du degré de préparation des pays, de leur capacité à isoler les patients infectés du reste de la population

et à les traiter, indique le rapport, qui relève que sur le plan clinique, seuls 21 des 54 pays d’Afrique ont les moyens de faire face aux épidémies.

Le supplément souligne que la cour-be de la pandémie en Afrique est en train de s’aplatir progressivement. Cependant, compte tenu des insuffisances des systèmes de santé et de la protection sociale, le virus reste une menace pour les vies humaines et les moyens de subsistance des populations. Le continent demeure également vulnéra-ble à d’autres menaces, comme les nuées de criquets en Afrique de l’Est, ou encore les événements climatiques extrêmes. Selon le rapport de la Banque, l’Afrique pourrait per-dre entre 145,5 milliards et 189,7 milliards de dollars américains de croissance en 2020.

Covid-19 : L’Afrique devrait connaître un rebond de croissance économique de 3 % en 2021

[STATEMENT BY THE SADC EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, HER EXCELLENCY DR STERGOMENA LAWRENCE TAX ON AFRICA INTEGRATION DAY – 07 July 2020]

On 6th of July, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) published the lat-est version of Tariff Profiles across the world. This pub-lication covers the latest available tariff data (either 2019 or 2018) and the latest available import data (either 2018 or 2017). The tariff information provided for the European Union covers its 28 member states as of 31 December 2019. The United Kingdom withdrew from the Europe-an Union as of 1 February 2020. The European Un-ion and the United King-dom have communicated that during the transition period, which ends on 31 December 2020, European Union law, with a few limited exceptions, continues to be applica-ble to and in the United Kingdom. During that transition period, the EU most-favoured nation (MFN) applied and pref-erential tariffs continue to be applicable in the United Kingdom.

About World Tariff Profiles

The World Tariff Profiles is a joint publication of the WTO, ITC and UNCTAD devoted to market access for goods. This statistical yearbook contains a comprehensive compilation of the main tariff parameters for each of the 164 WTO members plus other countries and customs territories where data is available. Each tariff profile presents information on tariffs imposed by each economy on its imports complemented with an analysis of the market access conditions it faces in its major export markets.

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LA TOUR4

Tariff profile 2020 of Mauritius WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION

The UK’s Big Four accounting firms have until 2024 to separate their audit practices following a severe edict from the accounting regulator that marks the largest shake-up of the industry in decades. The Financial Reporting Council has issued principles for the operational separation of the audit units of PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY

FRC urges government to implement audit reform

The government must act quickly to bring further reform of the audit sector as the FRC are unable to enact the full range of measures without a new statutory footing, according to Claire Lindridge, resources, capability and projects director at the Financial Regulatory Council (FRC)’s audit quality review team. Lindridge says the new reforms, while significant, are just the first of several steps. The main concern is in replacing the FRC with the audit reporting and governance authority (ARGA), for which legislation is required.“We definitely need government to enact some legislation to set ARGA on a statutory footing and to give ARGA the powers that it needs to enforce operational separation… but also to make changes into what companies are required to do,” she says.Lindridge is aware that the government has been preoccupied with the coronavirus crisis engulfing the world, not just the UK, and prior to that Brexit and a general election. However, the economic knock-on effects of coronavirus are likely to mean that audit comes under even more intense pressure than before, she says.“Clearly you could see this environment as one where there is going to be a lot more public interest in the health of companies, particularly those that have been the beneficiaries of government help in all its various forms that is there at the moment.“And so, it’s really important that directors are properly being held accountable for what they’re doing with that government support and the auditors are doing high quality audits on the financial statements that the directors are publishing.”

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United Kingdom’s regulator orders the largest shake-up of the industry in decades. The Big Four account-

ing firms – PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY – must outline their plans to implement all 22 of the principles issued by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) by the end of Oc-tober, and have completed the measures by June 2024.

It is the first structural overhaul of the way the firms operate since a string of re-views prompted by the failure of British outsourcer Carillion. Audit reform has been thrown into sharp focus in recent years by high-profile corporate collapses such as at BHS, Thomas Cook, and most recently, Wirecard.

The FRC’s new principles require that the firms pay auditors in line with the profits of their audits, ring-fence the finances of the audit division with a separate profit and loss account, and introduce an independent au-dit board to oversee the practice. The Big Four generate around a fifth of revenues from their audit practices, which have been dwarfed by the rapid expansion of their ad-visory divisions in recent years. The require-ments are designed to improve audit quality and “audit market resilience” by ensuring that “no material, structural cross subsidy persists be-tween the audit practice and the rest of the firm”, according to the FRC. “In pursuing these ob-

jectives, we will seek to ensure that audit remains an attractive and reputable profession and increase deserved confidence in audit,” it said.

The FRC ruled that profit payments dis-tributed to audit partners “should not persis-tently exceed the contribution to profits of the audit practice” and said that auditors “should work for the benefit of shareholders of audited entities and wider society; they are not accountable to audited entities’ executive management.”

The regulator stopped short of requiring auditors to be paid from a separate pool of profits generated only from audit fees. Crit-ics of the industry had recommended such a requirement in order to stop a real or per-ceived conflict of interest due to auditors being paid from the same profits as a firm’s consultants. “Today the FRC has delivered a major step in the reform of the audit sector,” said Jon Thompson, chief executive of the FRC. “Operational separation of the UK’s audit firms is just the first step on the journey to restoring trust in UK plc,” said Jon Holt, head of audit at KPMG, adding, “KPMG supports operational separation in the UK.”

The collapse of Carillion in 2018 sparked calls for an overhaul of the audit profession and an inquiry into KPMG, which had au-dited it for 19 years. Since then, the compe-tition watchdog has recommended that the government introduce legislation to break up the Big Four. The FRC is also set to tran-

sition into a new, more powerful statutory regulator called the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority. Deloitte’s head of audit and assurance Stephen Griggs, said: “We welcome this clarity from the FRC on the principles of operational separation and will con-

tinue working with them to develop our plans over the coming months. We remain committed to playing our role in delivering change that embraces audit quality, improves choice and restores trust.”

[Source: Financial Times, 6 July 2020]

Big Four told to outline plans for audit split by October

ACCOUNTING AND AUDIT

After Wirecard: is it time to audit the auditors?

At the end of 2003, the Italian dairy company Parmalat de-scended into bankruptcy in an eye-catchingly abrupt man-ner. A routine bank reconcil-

iation revealed that €3.9bn of cash which Parmalat was supposed to have at Bank of America did not actually exist. The scam that emerged duly blew apart one of Italy’s best-known entrepreneurial companies, and sent its founder, Calisto Tanzi, to prison for fraud. Dubbed Europe’s Enron, it humiliated two large auditing firms, Deloitte and Grant Thornton, and ended up costing the former $149m in damages. Yet it rested on an apparently simple decep-tion: the reconciliation letter on which the auditors were relying had been forged. There were shades of Parmalat’s collapse again last week when, nearly two decades later, an-other fast-growing European entrepreneur-ial company blew up in strikingly similar circumstances. After years of public questions about the re-liability of its accounts, primarily from the FT, the German electronic payments giant, Wirecard, was forced to admit to a massive hole in its balance sheet. Rattled by the fail-ure of an independent probe by KPMG to verify transactions underpinning “the lion’s share” of its reported profits between 2016 and 2018, and unable to publish its results due to issues eventually raised by its long-standing auditors EY, Wirecard finally capit-ulated. It announced that purported €1.9bn

cash balances at banks in the Philippines probably did “not exist” and parted com-pany with its chief executive Markus Braun. Evidence relied on by EY had been bogus.It remains unclear exactly how the crucial confirmation slipped through the cracks. According to one EY partner: “The general view internally is that confirming his-toric cash balances is auditing 101, and [that] ordinary auditing processes were followed, including third party verifica-tion, in which case the fraud was sophis-ticated in its use of false documents.”

‘Softball’ auditingOthers, however, take a less charitable view of such slip-ups, especially when, as with both Wirecard and Parmalat, they were preceded by so many questions about the reliability of the figures. “The integrity of the cash account [which records cash and should reconcile to all the other items in the accounts] is totally central to the whole system of double-entry bookkeeping,” says Karthik Ramanna, professor of busi-ness and public policy at Oxford’s Blavat-nik School of Government. “If there is no integrity to the cash account, then the whole system is just a joke.” Shareholder support Wirecard’s collapse is the latest in a wave of accounting scandals that has swept through the corporate world, including UK outsourcing group Carillion and Abu Dha-

bi-based hospital group NMC Health, as well as alleged frauds at the mini-bond firm Lon-don Capital & Finance (LCF) and the café chain Patisserie Valerie. Many fear a further surge as the Covid-19 lockdown washes away those companies with weakened balance sheets or business models in the coming months.Questions about “softball” auditing have dogged many recent high-profile insolven-cies. Carillion’s enthusiasm for buying com-panies with few tangible assets for high pric-es led it to build up £1.5bn of goodwill on its balance sheet. Despite vast losses at some of those subsidiaries, it had written down the value of just £134m of that goodwill when the whole edifice caved in. Similar questions hang over LCF, where close reading of the notes in the last accounts it published show how the estimated fair value of its liabili-ties far exceeded that of its assets in 2017, making it technically insolvent roughly 18 months before it collapsed taking with it more than £200m of savers’ cash. Yet EY gave the accounts a clean bill of health.

Not sanctionedSuch cases have raised concerns about the independence of auditors, and their willing-ness to challenge the wishes of management at the client, who are often driven by their own desire for self-enrichment or survival. “It’s so important if you want to keep

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The industry’s failure to spot holes in the accounts of several collapsed companies has led to clamour for reform

Cont’d on page 7

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the relationship to have a rapport with the finance director,” says a financier who once worked at a Big Four auditing firm. “It is basically sometimes easier to swallow what you are told.” It is a problem that has deepened with the adoption of modern accounting standards. Over the past three decades, these have pro-gressively dismantled the traditional system of historical cost accounting with its empha-sis on the verifiability of evidence and using prudent judgment, replacing it with one based on the idea that the primary purpose of accounts is to present information that is “useful to users”. This process has al-lowed managers to pull forward anticipated profits and unrealised gains, and write them up as today’s surpluses. Many company bo-nus schemes depend on the delivery of the “right” accounting numbers.In theory, shareholders are supposed to pro-vide a check on the influence of self-interest-ed bosses. They choose the auditors and set the terms of the engagement. But in prac-tice, investors tend not to assert themselves in the relationship. Scandals rarely lead to the ejection of auditors. So after UK telecoms group BT announced a £530m write-down in 2017 because of accounting misstatements at its Italian business, the auditors, PwC, were not sanctioned by investors. Far from it, the firm was reappointed with more than 75 per cent support. And when EY came up for re-election at Wirecard in the summer of 2018, despite rumblings about the numbers, it was voted back by more than 99 per cent.

Tight budgets and timetablesIt is not only an auditor’s desire for an easy life that can drain audits of that all-impor-tant culture of challenge. There are practical issues too. Tight budgets and timetables limit the scope for investigation. Audit fees in Eu-rope are far below those in the US. Audits of Russell 3000 index companies in the US cost 0.39 per cent of company turnover on average. Those in Europe average just 0.13 per cent, while for German companies it is a feeble 0.09 per cent. With fees low, audit-ing teams are often stretched thin, with only limited support from a partner out of a de-sire to limit costs and maximise the number

of audits done. Audit is traditionally the jun-ior partner in a big accountancy firm, with around four-fifths of the Big Four’s profits coming from the non-audit consultancy side.Take the last audit of BHS under the own-ership of Philip Green, who sold the failing UK retailer to a little known entrepreneur, Dominic Chappell, in 2015. The chain sub-sequently collapsed the following year. The PwC partner, Steve Denison, recorded only two hours of work auditing the financial statements. The number two, an auditor with just one year’s post-qualification expe-rience, recorded 29.25 hours, and the more junior team members 114.6 hours. Mr Deni-son was later fined for misconduct and effec-tively banned by the audit regulator.According to Tim Bush, head of governance and financial analysis at the Pensions & In-vestment Research Consultants, a sharehold-er advisory group, this reliance on juniors tends to result in “box checking” rather than an investigative approach to audit processes. “Audit teams are less likely to have a feel for the company’s business model,” he says. This in turn can open the door to abuse. Scams often hinge on faith in some implausi-ble business activity. Parmalat’s €3.9bn cash pile, for instance, was supposed to have come from selling milk powder to Cuba. But an analysis of the volumes claimed suggested that if the company’s numbers were accu-rate, each of the island’s inhabitants would have needed to be consuming 60 gallons a year. As the author Richard Brooks noted in his book The Bean Counters: “It shouldn’t have been difficult for a half-competent audit firm to spot.”

No ‘golden age’ The academic Prem Sikka rejects the idea that auditing has gone downhill in the past few decades. “Go back into history and you will find there was never a golden age,” he says. He argues that most of the weaknesses are of longstanding vintage, and are down to a lack of accountability. “On the audit side, there is no transparency. You have no idea as a reader of accounts how much time the auditors spent on the task and whether that was reasona-ble,” says the professor of accounting at the University of Sheffield. While there are signs

that the UK regulator is getting tougher, it is down to shareholders to provide stronger governance, Prof Sikka says. If they won’t do it, the government should consider setting up a state agency to commission audits of firms and set fees. “It wouldn’t have to be everyone. You could just do large com-panies and banks.”Britain has recently been through a compre-hensive review of audit, including how it is regulated and competition in the market, plus a review by the businessman Donald Brydon of its purpose. This devoted many pages to establishing it as a distinct new profession and coming up with new statements to in-clude in already groaning company reports. Far from creating new tasks, many observ-ers think that audit should reconnect with its original purpose. This is to assure investors that companies’ capital is not being abused by over-optimistic or fraudulent managers. “At their heart, audits are about pro-tecting capital, and thereby ensuring re-sponsible stewardship of capital,” says Natasha Landell-Mills, head of stewardship at the asset manager Sarasin & Partners.Yet modern accounting practice has made audits more complicated while watering down the legal requirement to exercise the judgment needed to ensure the numbers are “true and fair”. Despite the endless mush-rooming of numbers, it is no easier to know if the capital is really present and can thus justify the payment of dividends and bonus-es. Michael Izza, chief executive of the In-stitute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales says auditors need a “renewed focus on internal controls, going con-cern and fraud. The vast majority of business failures are not the fault of the auditor, but when audit quality is a con-tributory factor, the problem generally involves these three fundamental are-as.” Mr Bush thinks a radical simplification is in order. “Without clarity there is nev-er going to be proper accountability,” he says. “What we have is a recipe for weak auditing, and ever more Wirecards and Parmalats. In the extreme it facilitates Ponzi schemes. Stay on that route and it won’t be long before you come unstuck.”

[Source: Jonathan Ford and Tabby Kinder in London, Financial Times, July 3 2020]

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Selon Care Ratings (Africa) : «La note attribuée à la Bank One continue de s’appuyer sur

l’expérience de ses deux actionnaires, notamment CIEL et I&M, de ses antécédents satisfaisants, son équipe de direction professionnelle et hautement qualifiée, un taux d’adéquation des fonds propres confortable et au-dessus de la norme réglementaire, des résultats commerciaux stables avec une contri-bution satisfaisante des revenus autres que les intérêts, une croissance constante des dépôts à faibles coûts au cours des trois dernières années, un profil de ma-turité actif-passif confortable, un porte-feuille d’avances stable avec des normes strictes de reconnaissance des actifs non performants et une qualité satisfaisante des actifs ».

Plus tôt en juillet, Bank One a levé Rs600 millions en fonds pro-pres subordonnés de catégorie 2 (Subordinated Tier 2 Capital) pour sa première émission sur le marché mauricien des titres de créance (Debt Capital Mar-ket). La transaction a été conclue avec succès avec PLEION Cor-porate Finance Ltd qui a agi en tant que Transaction Adviser. Grâce au succès de cette nouvel-le levée de fonds, Bank One reste

bien placée pour poursuivre sa stratégie de croissance sur le plan local et international.

CARE Ratings est entré en opération en avril 1993, et pen-dant près de deux décennies, elle s’est imposée comme la deux-ième plus grande agence de no-tation de crédit en Inde. Elle est

fière de la place qu’elle occupe sur le marché des capitaux indi-en, fondée sur la confiance des investisseurs. Elle s’est égale-ment affirmée comme l’agence principale pour de nombreux segments tels que les banques, les entités infranationales et l’in-troduction en bourse.

Bank One et l’émission Tier 2 toutes

deux notées A+ par CARE Ratings (Africa)

NOTATION

Tamassa Bel Ombre : Revivez ensemble les bons moments à partir du 1er août

À l’occasion de sa réouverture le 1er août, Tamassa Bel Ombre ac-cueillera ses clients avec des expériences encore plus créatives, vibrantes et ludiques. Baptisées les « Together You’ll Love », ces expériences s’adressent aux familles, amis, couples et voyageurs solos qui cherchent à se reconnecter et à renouer des liens forts. Les clients seront invités à faire une immersion dans la localité autour d’une table avec de bonnes choses à manger et à boire. Ceux qui veulent se ressourcer après cette longue période de confinement profiteront des nombreux soins répara-teurs disponibles au santosha spa.

Red Bull Car Park Drift 2020: Rendez-vous le 3 octobre

Après les incertitudes liées à la pandémie de la Covid-19, les organisa-teurs ont confirmé la tenue à huis clos de la compétition mauricienne de Red Bull Car Park Drift 2020, qui aura lieu le 3 octobre sur le parking du stade Anjalay Coopen à Belle Vue. Les inscriptions pour cette édi-tion 2020 du Red Bull Car Park Drift (Mauritius) sont ouvertes et pren-dront fin le 1er octobre. Les demandes d’inscription peuvent être faites sur : http:// www.redbullcarparkdrift.com/register et sur les numéros de téléphone 52525040 et 57277667. Le champion mauricien pourra par-ticiper à la phase finale internationale contre les pilotes des autres pays sélectionnés, en avril 2021 en Égypte, aux frais de Red Bull.

Reprises des séances gratuites de Zumba à Moka

Amateurs de Zumba ou ceux à la recherche d’un sport collectif en plein air, venez bouger en toute sécurité. Les séances gratuites, proposées gratuitement par Moka’mwad, le collectif citoyen de la Smart City de Moka, ont en effet repris dès que les activités sportives en groupe ont été autorisés. Dispensés par Benjamin Lekh, instructeur certifié de Zumba, les cours se tiennent les lundis de 17h30 à 18h30 et les samedis de 7h45 à 8h45 à l’amphithéâtre de Telfair, Moka, dans le respect des consignes sanitaires. Le collectif indique que de nouvelles activités seront proposées d’ici quelques mois à l’amphithéâtre de Tel-fair, dont des séances gratuites de yoga et de kidsgym.

Victoire de Liverpool FC: Ces légendes qui ont rencontré les abonné de MC Vision/Canal+

Ian Rush, Gary McAllister, Patrik Berger, Vladimir Smicer… Ces quatre légendes de Liverpool FC ont toutes foulé le sol mauricien dans le cadre de divers partenariats avec MC Vision/CANAL+ Maurice. Afin de rendre hommage à cette équipe qui vient de remporter la Premier League après 30 ans, le leader de la télévision à péage à Maurice a tenu à partager quelques clichés souvenirs, en sa qualité de partenaire indé-fectible du sport.

Rénovation de Courts Mammouth à Flacq

Depuis la fin de juin, les habitants de Flacq peuvent profiter de leur nouveau magasin de Courts Mammouth et de sa nouvelle façade. Les trois paliers du magasin ont été entièrement réaménagés pour permet-tre une circulation plus fluide : le rez-de-chaussée réunit tout l’élec-troménager et la téléphonie mobile, au premier étage on trouve les meubles de salon et de salle à manger, et le second étage expose de belles chambres à coucher. Pour fêter cette réouverture après travaux, le ma-gasin regorge de promotions. « C’est important pour Courts Mammouth de constamment améliorer son service et ses prestations. Cette rénovation s’inscrit dans cette volonté de mettre nos clients au centre de nos préoccupa-tions et de nos projets », dit Andrew Cohen, CEO de Courts Mammouth.

Une double notation positive pour Bank One. Après avoir été attribué un rating ‘CARE MAU A+(Is)’ par l’agence de notation de crédit CARE Ratings (Africa) en 2018, la banque ainsi que l’émission Tier 2 ont toutes deux été notées A+ par Care Ratings (Africa)

Proximité, accessibilité, empreinte écologique réduite et espaces modu-lables figurent parmi les principaux atouts de ces nouveaux bureaux d’Oficea à Vivea Business Park. Of-frant un accès quasi immédiat au cen-tre commercial Kendra, à St-Pierre, ainsi qu’aux principales commodités du quotidien, « Les Fascines » ont été conçus suivant les tendances immo-bilières de l’après-Covid 19. Actuel-lement en construction, la livraison de « Les Fascines » est prévue pour fin 2021.

La construction commencera à partir de la mi-août, avec une livrai-son prévue pour novembre de l’an-

née prochaine. Les Fascines pro-poseront des espaces de bureaux modulables suivant les demandes des futurs locataires, à partir de 75 m². Ce nouvel édifice représentera à

terme une surface locative de l’ordre de 8 612 m², qui viendra s’ajouter aux 30 000 m² de bureaux de Grade A qui constituent le portefeuille actuel d’Oficea dans la Smart City de Moka.

Les Fascines, les bureaux de demain selon Oficea

DEBRIEF9

Ce contrat de services, qui entre dans le cadre du programme d’appui à la mise en œuvre de l’Accord de Partenariat

Économique, fait partie de l’action de l’Union européenne pour soutenir la relance économi-que de Maurice dans le contexte de l’épidémie de COVID-19.

Selon l’Ambassadeur, S.E.M. Vincent Degert : « Un environnement commercial plus efficace, dans lequel l’entreprise prospère, est un élément fondamen-tal de la création d’emplois et d’une croissance inclusive durable. Alors que le pays a poursuivi ses principaux engagements ces dernières années, comme en atteste la progression dans l’indice ‘Ease of Doing Business’, l’amélioration et la facilitation des affaires, la poursuite et l’approfondissement des réformes économiques et struc-turelles restent essentielles pour assurer un avenir plus prospère. Nous travaillons donc en étroite collaboration avec le gouvernement mauricien pour aider à mener à bien les réformes nécessaires pour garantir l’investisse-ment, l’emploi et la croissance inclusive au profit de la population mauricienne et en particulier de la jeunesse. Ce dispositif mis en place vise également à soutenir l’économie mauricienne fragilisée par la crise sanitaire du COVID-19. »

La politique gouvernementale joue un rôle important dans les opérations quotidiennes des

petites et moyennes entreprises (PME). Une réglementation lourde et onéreuse peut détourn-er l’énergie des entrepreneurs de leurs objectifs de développement ou d’innovation. Par ailleurs, il faut tenir compte de l’incidence négative de la pandémie de COVID-19 pour les entrepris-es mauriciennes et de l’impact sur la croissance économique. C’est la raison pour laquelle l’Un-ion européenne soutient les réformes en matière de la gouvernance économique pour encourager une réglementation qui soit à la fois intelligente, efficace, accessible et simple.

Ce contrat de services d’un montant de 90 millions de roupies consiste à mobiliser une expertise technique internationale auprès du ministère des Finances et de la Planification économique et du Economic Development Board pour une durée de trois ans avec deux principaux objectifs : (a) Faire une évaluation globale de l’environne-

ment des affaires. Cette évaluation couvre de nombreux aspects tels que la politique d’ouverture, la structure institutionnelle, le cadre juridique et réglementaire, le système d’octroi de licences et l’élaboration de règles liées aux entreprises ;

(b) Proposer des réformes en matière de gou-

vernance réglementaire sectorielle, en par-ticulier: l’utilisation des terres et la con-struction, le commerce et la logistique, le tourisme, les soins de santé et les sciences de la vie en concertation avec les opéra-

teurs économiques. Ce travail permettra de contribuer à créer un environnement mac-roéconomique propice au commerce et aux investissements pouvant générer des em-plois et une croissance durable et inclusive.

Signature d’un nouveau contrat de services de 90 millions de roupies

AMÉLIORER LE CLIMAT DES AFFAIRES ET DES INVESTISSEMENTS

Retour de la F1 sur CANAL+Le Championnat du Monde de Formule 1™ a enfin débuté. Le

dimanche 5 juillet, à 15h10, en Autriche, les abonnés des OFFRES CANAL+ avaient rendez-vous avec Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamil-ton, Pierre Gasly, et tous les autres... Un retour tant attendu que CANAL+ a décidé de mettre les bouchées doubles avec la program-mation d’un rendez-vous exceptionnel : “EN POLE” tous les jours de la semaine précédant le Grand Prix, à 22H sur CANAL+ SPORT 3. Le week-end, toutes les sessions et les courses seront diffusées en direct sur CANAL+. Toute la semaine et tout le week-end, une programmation spéciale avec de grands films liés aux sports mécan-iques à l’image de RUSH ou SENNA, ainsi qu’un grand nombre de documentaires SPORT REPORTER sur l’histoire des Grands Prix, sont prévus sur les chaînes CANAL+ et CANAL+ SPORT.

L’Ambassadeur de l’Union européenne auprès de la République de Maurice a signé un nouveau contrat de services de 90 millions de roupies pour aider Maurice à améliorer le climat des affaires et des investissements et ainsi créer des emplois et favoriser une croissance durable et inclusive

VENDREDI 10 JUILLET 2020 | BIZWEEK | ÉDITION 298

700. C’est le nombre d’arbres endémiques plantés par le groupe C-Care à Ferney La Vallée dans le cadre de son initiative « One Life, One Tree ». En effet, grâce à ce projet, lancé en juin 2019 à l’occasion de la Journée mondiale de l’En-vironnement, le groupe de santé privé a planté un arbre pour chaque naissance à la Clinique Darné et au Wellkin Hospital. Chaque plante mise en terre porte une étiquette avec le nom et la date de nais-sance d’un enfant. La première phase de ce projet durera jusqu’en 2022. En participant à l’initiative « One Tree, One Life », les parents reçoivent une visite gratuite à Ferney La Vallée. Ils pourront ainsi voir l’évolution de la plante mais aussi découvrir les nombreuses actions entreprises par La Vallée de Ferney Conservation Trust pour préserver et res-taurer la faune et la flore de cette réserve. Pour le groupe C-Care, ce projet est une manière de sensi-biliser la communauté à la nécessité de protéger le patrimoine naturel de Maurice.

Xin Motors, société opérant sous le cluster automobile du Groupe ABC, lance le nouveau JMC Vigus sur le segment des véhicules utilitaires légers à Maurice. Robuste, polyvalent et proposé à un prix compétitif, ce véhicule arrive à point nommé pour les autoentrepreneurs ou microen-treprises engagés dans l’agriculture, la construction ou encore dans les services de livraison à domicile qui ont pris de l’essor avec la crise sani-taire liée à la Covid-19. Le nouveau JMC Vigus offre un savant mélange entre modernité au niveau du design et qualité en termes d’équipements. Performance, confort et polyvalence viennent s’ajouter aux atouts dont dispose le pick-up. Il est équipé de commandes au volant, d’un moteur de 2.4 litres diesel à 4 cylindres, d’une boîte de vitesses manuelle à 5 rapports, d’un radar de recul, de sièges en cuir entre autres.

Xin Motors : Coup de neuf pour le pick-up polyvalent JMC Vigus

C-Care plante 700 arbres endémiques à Ferney La Vallée