By Manik Mehta, AJOT Often portrayed as a tear rolling down the cheek of Africa, Mauritius enjoys a strategic location in the international sea routes near Africa. Playing up its location in the Indian Ocean and its proximity to the African continent, Mauritius is pitching itself as a “Gateway to Africa,” hoping that foreign companies will see the merits of using it in the sea-trade with Africa and even India. Shekur Suntah, the deputy director general of Mauritius Port Authority (MPA), the managing agency for all ports in Mauritius, highlights some of the “excellent strategic advantages” which Mauritius offers to US companies interested not only in trading with Africa and Asia but also in setting up a manufacturing operation. “Our Freeport offers offshore facilities for simple assembly work involved, for example, in the computer industry. There are many foreign companies in this sector. Indian companies, for example, source heavily from India and then re-export the products to Africa. US companies can also do the same.Mauritius has evolved into a transshipment platform for many Indian companies,” an upbeat Suntah says in an interview with American Journal of Transportation. Suntah points out that the MPA is working to upgrade Port Louis into a regional logistics and transport hub. Mauritius ports handled combined 5.5 million tons of cargo last year, of which container throughput was 386,000 teus. Like Sri Lanka’s Colombo, Port Louis is also hoping to attract cargo traffic bound to and from India whose ports are so congested, thanks to the heavy red tape and anachronistic mode of handling, that other smaller foreign ports in India’s neighborhood stand to benefit. While ports such as Colombo and Port Louis are constantly cutting the bureaucratic red-tape and simplifying import-export clearing procedures, and looking for ways and means to make their ports attractive for trade with India, Indian ports are steadily regressing and creating hardships for both importers and exporters. Not only are India’s anachronistic procedures and the customs red tape a frustrating task for those involved in any aspect of foreign trade, but India’s ports urgently need to be developed if the Indian Government’s growth targets are to be met. Representatives of Indian companies in Mauritius have been telling American Journal of Transportation in private conversations that Port Louis’ “dramatic rise” as a logistics center will pose challenges for Indian ports in the future, unless the Indian Government does away with the senseless red tape and the “obstructive attitude” of its bureaucrats. Suntah says that the markets of the huge African continent are within “easy reach” from Port Louis for US companies. “We know the continent very well. As a French and English-speaking country, Mauritius understands the business culture of both the English and French-speaking African countries,” he claims. Strategic location The logistics sector has turned out to be a savior for many smaller nations, particularly those with little or no natural resources, but blessed with strategic locations in the international shipping routes. This is true not only of Port Louis and Colombo, but also of Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Realizing the money-spinning potential in logistics, the MPA is aggressively pursuing its plans to upgrade Port Louis into a logistics hub. In 1998 the MPA commissioned a brand new container terminal with two berths totaling 560 meters with a dredge-depth of 13.1 meters. The terminal is equipped with three state-of-the-art post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes. Port Louis’ productivity on crane operation is in line with the best container ports in the world, according to experts at the London-based International Maritime Office. Port Louis clocks 18-20 moves per gross crane hour. But MPA officials emphasize that Mauritius maintains a “special affinity” not only with Africa, but also with India, because of its long and traditional cultural and trade relations with the latter. This rel