Found at: http://www.competitiveness.org/article/articleprint/117/-1/76/
The National Productivity and Competitiveness Council which has been spearheading the clustering concept in Mauritius welcomed government's incentives to transform the Mauritian Textile Industry through the promotion of a network of SMEs. To attain the competitiveness and flexibility of smaller manufacturers while maintaining the advantages of economies of scale, it is hoped that anchor firms will form that will be able to maintain financial stability and subcontract demands to the array of SMEs.
The Mauritian government has officially endorsed clustering. In the last budget speech, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance said:
"Industrial clusters offer prospects for firms in similar or complementary activities to access specialized resources and enhance their ability to innovate and compete effectively. Clustering can help reduce costs through sharing of services and infrastructure while allowing enterprises to retain their operational flexibility. Government will work out an incentive package to promote clustering. Loans on concessionary terms will be provided by the Development Bank of Mauritius."
The DPM himself is chairing a committee on industrial clustering. The first objective of this committee is to decide on a package of incentives to be offered. The question then becomes, can government incentives alone effect the successful transformation of the industry to one of interlocked SMEs that work together effectively, while remaining competitive and not duplicating resources.
TCI would like to thank member Nikhil Treebhoohun, National Productivity and Competitiveness Council CEO for providing us with the information to write this article. If any other members have contributions they would be greatly appreciated.
TCI members are invited to discuss this via the TCI forum