Mauritius commits to PPP road plan
18 April 2012
The president of Mauritius has called for Rs 20bn (US$400m) in private investment for a new wave of road PPPs.
Monique Oshhan Bellepeau, who took over as president in March, said that the government plans to double its budget for highways between now and 2015 in order to attract the financing for an "ambitious" infrastructure plan to spur tourism."The road sector will be boosted by the introduction of public-private-partnership schemes," she said, "[which] will involve private investment to a tune of 20 billion rupees."
She said the budget allocation for the road sector will rise to $77m this year, "but this is set to rise further to $214m by 2014."
The road plan is expected to include improvements to the country's Port Louis ring road.
Mauritius has cut its growth forecast for this year to 3.6% from 4%, citing a bleak outlook for its $10bn economy.
The debt crisis in the zone has cut demand for Mauritius' exports as well as tourism to the country, in which Europe is one of the largest source of demand.
