Mauritius put health at the centre of economic growth

NEW budgetary measures announced by Mauritius ensure sustainability of its national coronavirus vaccination campaign and encourage the local manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines to better fight the pandemic.

The African island country intensified its national vaccination campaign to reach herd immunity by September, with at least 60 percent of its adult population being vaccinated.

The Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, presented the 2021-22 Budget last Friday after yet another year of unprecedented events.

The budget strikes a balance among fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting the population while boosting economic growth.

Mauritius is pushing the pharmaceutical industry as fresh pillar of its economy.

As such, a seed capital of Rs 1 billion (US$24,54 million) will be allocated to the Mauritius Institute of Biotechnology to produce COVID-19 vaccines and other pharmaceutical products.

Mauritius is also investing in the required infrastructure and equipment to protect its health care personnel and better respond to the needs of the population.

Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth's government is increasing the public health budget to Rs 14,5 billion.

This will enable acquisition of high-tech equipment.

The budget provides for the construction of a new cancer centre, regional hospital, eye hospital, six mediclinics, five community health centres, four area health centres and a modern cardiac centre in the different parts of the island.

"Through these new budget measures, Mauritius aims at Recovery, Revival and Resilience with vaccination as the game changer," the World Health Organisation lauded.