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Mauritius
Republic of Mauritius President:
Anerood Jugnauth (2003) Prime
Minister: Navin Ramgoolam (2005)
Current government officials
Land area: 714 sq mi (1,849 sq km);
total area: 788 sq mi (2,040 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 1,260,781 (growth
rate: 0.7%); birth rate: 15.0/1000; infant mortality rate: 13.7/1000;
life expectancy: 73.1; density per sq km: 621
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Port Louis, 577,200 (metro. area), 143,800 (city
proper) Monetary unit: Mauritian
rupee
Languages:
English less than 1% (official), Creole 81%,
Bojpoori 12%, French 3% (2000)
Ethnicity/race:
Indo-Mauritian 68%, Creole 27%, Sino-Mauritian
3%, Franco-Mauritian 2%
Religions:
Hindu 48%, Roman Catholic 24%, other Christian
8%, Islam 17% (2000)
National Holiday:
Independence Day, March 12 Literacy rate: 86% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$14.06 billion; per capita $ $11,200 . Real growth rate: 4.6%.
Inflation: 8.8%. Unemployment: 8.8%. Arable land:
49%. Agriculture: sugarcane, tea, corn, potatoes, bananas,
pulses; cattle, goats; fish. Labor force: 552,700; construction
and industry 30%, services 25%, agriculture and fishing 9%, trade,
restaurants, hotels 22%, transportation and communication 7%, finance
6% (2007). Industries: food processing (largely sugar milling),
textiles, clothing, chemicals, metal products, transport equipment,
nonelectrical machinery, tourism. Natural resources: arable
land, fish. Exports: $2.475 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.):
clothing and textiles, sugar, cut flowers, molasses. Imports:
$3.627 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): manufactured goods, capital
equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals. Major trading
partners: UK, UAE, France, U.S., Madagascar, South Africa, China,
India (2006).
Member of Commonwealth of Nations
Communications: Telephones: main
lines in use: 357,300 (2006); mobile cellular: 772,400 (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 9, shortwave 0 (2002).
Radios: 420,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 2
(plus several repeaters) (1997). Televisions: 258,000
(1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 9,792 (2007).
Internet users: 182,000 (2006). Transportation: Railways: 0 km.
Highways: total: 2,020 km; paved: 2,020 km (including 75 km of
expressways) (2005). Ports and harbors: Port Louis.
Airports: 5 (2007). International
disputes: Mauritius claims the Chagos Archipelago (UK-administered
British Indian Ocean Territory), and its former inhabitants, who
reside chiefly in Mauritius, but were granted UK citizenship and the
right to repatriation in 2001; claims French-administered Tromelin
Island.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Mauritius is a mountainous island in the Indian
Ocean east of Madagascar.
Government
Parliamentary democracy within the British
Commonwealth.
History
After a brief Dutch settlement, French
immigrants who came in 1715 named the island Île de France and
established the first road and harbor infrastructure, as well as the sugar
industry, under the leadership of Gov. Mahe de Labourdonnais. Blacks from
Africa and Madagascar came as slaves to work in the sugarcane fields. In
1810, the British captured the island and in 1814, by the Treaty of Paris,
it was ceded to Great Britain along with its dependencies.
Indian immigration, which followed the abolition
of slavery in 1835, rapidly changed the fabric of Mauritian society, and
the country flourished with the increased cultivation of sugarcane. The
opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 heralded the decline of Mauritius as a
port of call for ships rounding the southern tip of Africa, bound for
South and East Asia. The economic instability of the price of sugar, the
main crop, in the first half of the 20th century brought civil unrest,
then economic, administrative, and political reforms. Mauritius became
independent on March 12, 1968.
The effects of Cyclone Claudette in 1979 and of
falling world sugar prices in the early 1980s led the government to
initiate a vigorous program of agricultural diversification and develop
the processing of imported goods for the export market. The country
formally broke ties with the British Crown in March 1992, becoming a
republic within the Commonwealth.
In addition to sugarcane, textile production and
tourism are the leading industries. Primary education is free, and
Mauritius boasts one of the highest literacy rates in sub-Saharan
Africa.
With a complicated ethnic mix—about 30% of
the population is of African descent and the remainder is mostly of Indian
descent, both Hindu and Muslim—political allegiances are organized
according to class and ethnicity.
In Feb. 2002, Mauritius went through four
presidents in succession. Two resigned within days of each other, each
after refusing to sign a controversial anti-terrorism law that severely
curtailed the rights of suspects. The law, supported by the prime
minister, was ultimately signed by a third, interim president. At the end
of February, a fourth president, Karl Offman, was elected by
parliament.
In Oct. 2003, Paul Berenger, a white Mauritian
of French ancestry, became the first non-Hindu prime minister in the
history of Mauritius. Berenger and the previous prime minister, Anerood
Jugnauth, formed a coalition during Sept. 2000 elections. Under their
agreement, Jugnauth served as prime minister for three years and Berenger
assumed the prime ministership for the remaining two years of the term.
Jugnauth then became president in 2003, and in July 2005, Navin Ramgoolam,
prime minister from 1995 to 2000, again assumed that office.
See also Encyclopedia: Mauritius. U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Mauritius Central Statistical Office ncb.intnet.mu/cso.htm .
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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