Mauritius initially developed a
textile manufacturing sector to diversify its economy and by the 1980s the
share of manufacturing in GDP had increased to 25% from 19% in the 1970s.
Originally the manufacture and subsequent exportation of textiles and
garments complemented the tourism and sugar export industry.
Tourism is now considered to be the
central pillar of the economy following the decline of the sugar industry.
Economic growth over the last 30 years due to the development of Mauritius
from a low-income economy based on agriculture into a middle-income
diversified economy has been attributed to the expansion of the luxury
tourism sector.
The National Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) vision has been to accelerate the country's
transformation into an information-based society and to position Mauritius
as a regional ICT hub. ICT is now considered to be the fifth pillar of the
economy.