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Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is anisland nation off the coast of the African continent in the southwest IndianOcean, about 900 kilometers (560 mi) east of Madagascar. In addition to theisland of Mauritius, the republic includes the islands of St. Brandon,Rodrigues and the Agalega Islands. Mauritius is part of the Mascarene Islands,with the French island of Réunion 200 km (125 mi) to the southwestand the island of Rodrigues 570 km to the northeast. The island's capitaland largest city is Port Louis, in the northwest. Other important towns areCurepipe, Vacoas, Phoenix, Quatre Bornes, Rose-Hill and Beau-Bassin.

The local climate is tropical, modified by southeast tradewinds; there is a warm, dry winter from May to November and a hot, wet, andhumid summer from November to May. Anti-cyclones affect the country during Mayto September. Cyclones affect the country during November-April. Hollanda(1994) and Dina (2002) were the worst two last cyclones to have affected the island.The 2007 population estimate was 1,264,866people. The official language of Mauritius is English. All governmentadministrative documents are therefore drawn up in English. Together withEnglish, French is also used in instruction in the educational system. French,however, predominates in the media, both broadcast and printed, as well as inbusiness and in corporate affairs. The most widely-spoken language of thecountry is Mauritian Creole, which has close ties with French pronunciation,but with a few marked differences, too. Mauritian Creole is considered to bethe native tongue of the country.

Since independence in 1968, Mauritius has developed from alow-income, agriculturally based economy to a middle-income diversified economywith growing industrial, financial, and tourist sectors. For most of theperiod, annual growth has been in the order of 5% to 6%. This remarkableachievement has been reflected in more equitable income distribution, increasedlife expectancy, lowered infant mortality, and a much-improved infrastructure.The economy rests on sugar, tourism, textiles and apparel, and financialservices, and is expanding into fish processing, information and communicationstechnology, and hospitality and property development. Sugarcane is grown onabout 90% of the cultivated land area and accounts for 15% of export earnings.The government's development strategy centers on creating vertical andhorizontal clusters of development in these sectors. Mauritius has attractedmore than 32,000 offshore entities, many aimed at commerce in India, SouthAfrica, and China. Investment in the banking sector alone has reached over $1billion. Mauritius, with its strong textile sector, has been well poised totake advantage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Foreigners can now buy property through one of thegovernment's schemes: the Permanent Residence Scheme (PRS), Integrated ResortScheme (IRS), and Scheme to Attract Professionals for Emerging Sectors (SAPES).Under the PRS, the foreign investor can purchase up to 1.25 arpents (5,276 sq.m.) of residential property, at least 100 meters away from the sea. However, aminimum investment of US$500,000 is required.