TEXTILE AND CLOTHING INDUSTRY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA The Textile and Clothing Industry in Mauritius By Gilles Joomun 1. Introduction The textile and clothing sector appeared in the Mauritian government’s agenda for the first time in the Meade’s report in the 1960s. James Meade conducted a study on the Mauritian economy to find a solution for diversifying the sugar-based mono-crop economy. Meade advocated for the setting up of labour-intensive in­dustries if Mauritius does not want to face the problem of‘Malthusian Trap’. The setting up of the textile and clothing industry was successful in terms of income generation, employment creation and capacity building for local entrepreneurs. The success of the textile and clothing industry of Mauritius lies on three fundamental aspects: • Conducive environment for investment • Exogenous factors • Preferential trade arrangements Conducive Environment for Investment In 1970, the government began its export promotion strategy with the enactment of the Export Processing Zone(EPZ) Act. The first Export Processing Zone was launched in 1971. The Act provided incentives and concessions to enterprises exporting their products. The government took further steps: 1. Sustainable export growth through five successive stand-by arrangements and two structural adjustment programmes between 1980 and 1986 2. Establishment of key institutions like the Mauritius Export Development and Investment Authority for export promotion. 3. Monetary measures such as the devaluation of the rupee to make Mauritian exports internationally competitive. During the 1980s Mauritius had a pool of educated labour, which was available at a cheap rate. Although the majority of the available workers was unskilled, they were very versatile and adapted easily to working in the textile and sector. FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG 193