‘Mauritius can be to India what Hong Kong
is to China’

Our Economic Bureau

New Delhi, Dec 10: Mauritius can be to India what Singapore and Hong Kong are to China,” said minister of economic development, financial services and corporate affairs, Mauritius, Sushil KC Khushiram, adding that his island country could and should emerge as a major source of non-resident funding for India.

Talking to newspersons, Mr Khushiram said that Mauritius is streamlining its financial regulatory mechanism and has set up Financial Services Commission (FSC) as a super regulator to oversee the financial sector. He added, Mauritius has also set up Financial Services Promotion Agency (FSPA) to develop and promote the sector.

The minister said that his country would soon enact various laws to deal with financial crimes like money laundering. “We don’t want bad money”, stressed Mr Khushiram when asked whether these regulations would adversely impact the flow of capital into the country.

Trying to dispel the impression that Mauritius is being used as a conduit for transferring ill-gotten funds, which are believed to have played havoc in the Indian stock markets, the Mauritian minister said, “We have given information about various overseas corporate bodies (OCBs) to the Indian authorities and are ready to provide more information.”

The minister met the Reserve Bank governor Bimal Jalan, Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman DR Mehta, minister for law justice and company affairs Arun Jaitley and would meet finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday.