China's push praised and censured in Mauritius

By Ed Harris

TERRE ROUGE, Mauritius (Reuters) - Sitting under a pair of mango trees and sipping coconut water, Toolsy Poorun, 87, says he thought he would live in Terre Rouge forever. But then Chinese investment came to this part of Mauritius.

Poorun, who lives in the suburbs of the Indian Ocean island's capital Port Louis, now finds himself caught up in China's African push which has seen it pour billions of dollars into the continent, seeking to lock in access to rich resources, including oil and minerals.

The investment rush has sparked tensions with former colonial masters and international donors, Chinese workers have sometimes clashed with locals angered at foreign labor taking jobs, and some Africans have questioned what the flows of money mean for China's role in internal politics.

Some of these tensions are visible in Mauritius, where China plans to open a trade development zone for more than a dozen Chinese firms in Terre Rouge, at a cost of around $730 million, making it the largest foreign direct investment in the country.

Details of what exactly will be in the Shanxi Tianli Enterprises Ltd business park are still sketchy, but Mauritian officials say it will provide a launch pad for Chinese operations in the region.

As a member of trade blocs like the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the South African Development Community (SADC), Mauritius offers a gateway to African markets comprising half a billion people.

But some of the 1.3 million people on the palm-fringed island are wary of what is known as the Tianli project.

Poorun is among them. He settled in Terre Rouge in 1960 and is one of 106 farmers who have been told to leave their farms and homes to make way for the Tianli zone.

"It was a big shock. Where should I go next?" he said.

Beyond the plight of the farmers, who will be compensated, there are other broader concerns about the Chinese plans and some doubts that the project will ever actually go ahead.

"It is one of these projects that ... looks too good to be true," said Tim Taylor, former chief executive of Rogers, one of Mauritius' largest firms with interests in tourism and logistics.

"They need quite a lot of water, power, what have you. That is going to put a strain on the infrastructure."

Government officials appear to have no doubts, however.

"This is an investment of approximately 20 billion rupees ($734 million) over a five-year period that would create direct, indirect or induced jobs of about 40,000," Finance Minister Rama Sithanen told reporters earlier this month.

A large project for a $9 billion economy with a workforce of just 550,000, Sithanen said the Chinese zone will also create exports worth an estimated 6 to 7 billion rupees per year, almost 10 percent of Mauritius' total last year.