Dr Ramakrishna Sithanen

Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Finance

Date of Birth: 21/04/1954

RAMAKRISHNA SITHANEN
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Mauritius

Sithanen is the key strategist behind his country's fast-expanding ties with Asia's hyper-economies, China and India. He wants Chinese and Indian investment to support his plans for the development of Mauritius as the regional financial centre of choice for Asian investors.

Sithanen spent most of the 1980s at Air Mauritius as an economist and Director of Planning. Sithanen's political career began in 1991, when he was elected to the National Assembly, serving at the same time as Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth's Finance Minister. Sithanen went into the political wilderness after 1995 elections cast the Labour Party from power. Rejuvenated, Labour returned to power a decade later, and PM Navinchandra Ramgoolam brought Sithanen back as his Deputy PM and Finance Minister. Sithanen launched an ambitious package of reforms, mapped out in the 2006-7 budget.

Sithanen is developing an economic plan based on the rapid development of financial institutions to serve the region together with health and educational services. They are to grow alongside tourism and call centres such as the one operated by India's Infosys Technologies.

As Mauritius becomes a gateway to Africa for Asian businesses, Sithanen's star rises further. In offshore financial services, the country already does booming business as intermediary for Indian companies' African operations. Now China has arrived with its own grand projects such as Shanxi Tianli Enterprise's US$730 million industrial park near Port Louis. Initial government reports promised 7,500 new jobs; recently Sithanen claimed there would be 40,000 jobs.