RCCI’s Foundational Brief
Rodrigues has reached a moment of truth: traditional sources of income are drying up, and public finances are becoming increasingly constrained. The 2025–26 national budget marks a significant drop in allocations to Rodrigues, signalling the end of an era of easy transfers. This turning point is reinforced by a new legal framework: the Rodrigues Regional Assembly (Amendment) Bill introduces performance-based budgeting, linking funds to outcomes and subjecting local economic decision-making to greater oversight. In plain terms, Rodrigues must now do more with less. And more than ever, it must do so on its own.
In this context, the creation of the Rodrigues Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) marks a decisive push towards private-sector-led growth. This article outlines why this moment is critical for Rodrigues and what RCCI brings to the table. It is structured in eight parts.
- The Mirage of the Rodriguan Private Sector
- Why the Economy Isn’t Taking Off
- A Generation on the Run
- Rodrigues as a Model, Not a Margin
- The Case for Private Sector–Led Growth
- No Growth Without Dialogue
- RCCI’s Role in the Transition
- About the RCCI
I. The Mirage of the Rodriguan Private Sector
For decades, the economic governance of Rodrigues has operated with a striking omission: the private sector has been left out of the equation. While government budgets, strategic plans, and public policies have multiplied, they remain largely blind to the fundamental role of private enterprise in creating jobs, generating income, and ensuring long-term economic resilience.
The 2024–25 budget speech mentions the private sector in just a few vague lines, including a poorly translated announcement of a “network business” that raises more concern than hope. The 2025–26 budget amplifies the misguided policy of non-refundable grants—a deadly poison for any private sector, as they unbalance level playing fields and distort competition.
The recent launch of the Rodrigues Labour Tripartite Consultative Committee is another example: while the Mauritian side was represented by Business Mauritius and major trade unions, no Rodriguan employers were invited. Worse, when commissioners speak of “the private sector”, they often refer exclusively to Mauritian conglomerates—not to local entrepreneurs.
This disregard is not merely rhetorical. It reflects a deeper structural bias that sees the Rodrigues Regional Assembly as the principal actor in economic development, while treating the private sector as marginal, extractive, or even suspect. In such a setting, entrepreneurship becomes an act of defiance, not support—undertaken despite the system, not because of it.
II. Why the Economy Isn’t Taking Off
The Rodriguan economy is locked into a structure that favours importers, not innovators. The most powerful economic actors are trader-importers who distribute goods and dominate retail through dependent networks of small shops. But traders are not entrepreneurs in the Schumpeterian sense: they seek continuity, not disruption. Their business model depends on import flows, and any form of local production is a threat to their margins.
Politicians, meanwhile, often confuse public funds with entrepreneurial capital. Failed ventures like the Vatel hospitality school are the result. Cooperatives have long been used as a substitute for a private sector, but nepotism, politicisation, and a lack of skilled support have turned them into a graveyard of public hopes. Even when a dedicated individual emerges, they often leave for Mauritius in search of better opportunities.
Public officials are no better suited to drive development. Risk aversion is built into their professional DNA. You do not become a civil servant to change the world, but to protect the status quo.
Together, these actors form a system that maintains itself by resisting change—a system unfit for economic transformation.
III. A Generation on the Run
The most painful effect of Rodrigues’ current economic system is its quiet violence against talent. Young, qualified Rodriguans are leaving the island in growing numbers. They do so not only for better pay or education but because they feel unseen, unvalued, and unsupported. For many, the choice is not ambition but survival. And those who choose to stay often find themselves swimming upstream—isolated, underestimated, and exposed to a culture that treats initiative with suspicion rather than encouragement.
This exodus is not just a demographic trend—it is an economic emergency. The island is losing not only hands and minds, but hope and continuity. Every young person who leaves represents a long-term investment—of family effort, public schooling, and cultural heritage—that is harvested elsewhere. With each departure, Rodrigues is robbed of the very energy it needs to regenerate itself.
At the heart of this crisis lies a breakdown of opportunity. For a young person with ideas, skills, and ambition, there are few pathways to transform potential into reality. There is no structured support for start-ups, few mentors, and little access to early-stage finance. Creativity is boxed in by bureaucracy; boldness is blunted by an environment that rewards compliance over initiative.
Many young Rodriguans are not asking for favours—they are asking for a chance. A space to try, to fail, and to grow. A context that rewards initiative rather than penalising it. A community that values innovation not as a threat to order but as the seed of progress.
If this generation continues to run, there may not be another ready to take its place. The future will not come back.
But the trend is not irreversible. What is needed is a new narrative—one that sees young people not as a problem to solve but as the key to solving everything else. It is here that RCCI intends to make a difference: by creating a platform that connects young talent with tools, with mentors, with networks of encouragement. By showing that in Rodrigues, initiative is possible—and welcome.
This isn’t just about keeping people from leaving. It’s about giving them a reason to stay. And perhaps one day, a reason to come back.
IV. Rodrigues as a Model, Not a Margin
Rodrigues has long been seen as peripheral, lagging behind. But in a world awakening to the realities of climate change, resource depletion and the end of limitless growth, humanity is entering an era defined by finitude—an age of limits, restraint, and reimagined sufficiency. For small islands like Rodrigues, this is not a new condition but a lived reality. Here, scarcity is not a crisis but a condition of life. Here, human scale is not a limitation but a strength.
Insularity, once seen as a disadvantage, now reveals itself as a lens through which the future can be understood. Rodrigues, with its tight-knit communities, fragile ecosystems, and scarce resources, is not behind—it is ahead. It stands as a living laboratory for a human-scale, sustainable, and values-driven economy. From the margins of the map, Rodrigues could offer the world a model: not of endless accumulation, but of meaningful development, rooted in care, creativity, and balance.
Rodrigues does not have to dismantle failed models to make room for the future—it can build differently from the outset. This is not a weakness; it is a freedom. The absence of industrial overdevelopment opens space for regenerative practices, circular economies, and locally rooted innovation. RCCI views this not as utopia, but as a strategic advantage. The island’s small scale allows for experimentation, agility, and new models of meaningful growth. We believe that the path Rodrigues is forging—born of necessity, driven by creativity—may well become the reference for communities far beyond our shores.
V. The Case for Private Sector–Led Growth
The public sector has had decades to drive development. The results are clear—and they are disappointing. The annual audit reports provide ample documentation of failed projects and waste.
Why? Because public administrations and private enterprises operate under fundamentally different logics—and unless these differences are understood and respected, collaboration will always be shallow or short-lived.
The public servant is, by nature and training, risk-averse. The system rewards caution, not innovation. At the same time, the politician or political administrator tends to seek quick fixes rather than long-term solutions. His primary objective is often to make a problem disappear—fast—knowing full well that the chosen solution may be short-lived or precarious in the long run. The goal is not sustainability, but expediency.
In contrast, the entrepreneur thrives on risk and disruption. Success in business requires the ability to anticipate change, respond creatively to setbacks, and invest time and resources into uncertain ventures. And unlike the short-term orientation of political cycles, the entrepreneur—when successful—is in it for the long haul. A business is not a file to close, but a lifetime project to build.
This disconnect in temporal logic and tolerance for complexity often plays out in failed or underperforming projects. Case in point: the Maison des Pêcheurs in Port Mathurin. After a quick and visible round of renovation and refurbishment—a relatively easy task—the facility still lies idle. Why? Because no viable business model was ever developed to make it operational. The structural challenge—the complex task to run it sustainably—was never addressed.
Another example: in 2019 the administration decided to invest in expensive Italian lime juice extraction equipment, complete with a cold room, to support a cooperative of lime growers in Graviers. The capital expenditure was swift and impressive—but the business logic was weak. One month ago, 50,000 locally grown limes are exported to Mauritius to be transformed into, you guessed it, lime juice. A betrayal, not just of local entrepreneurs, but of the Rodriguan cause itself. Why? “The cooperative has had difficulties and the equipment is now beyond repair.” Sustaining a project is complex. In Graviers, the project did not survive.
Without understanding the logic of the entrepreneur, public initiatives will continue to confuse infrastructure for enterprise, and speed for strategy. What looks like action is often just postponement in disguise.
VI. No Growth Without Dialogue
Economic governance in Rodrigues suffers not only from flawed policies but also from a striking lack of transparency and public scrutiny. Strategic decisions are made behind closed doors, major projects are launched without community consultation, and critical reports—when published at all—go unread and unheeded. The result is an opaque system where accountability is minimal and where the same structural weaknesses are endlessly reproduced.
Public funding, especially when sourced from external donors, often reinforces this pattern. Rather than being tied to well-argued, context-aware development strategies, funding flows through personal or political channels. Projects are presented as faits accomplis. Stakeholders are expected to fall in line—not to contribute, challenge, or improve.
This is where RCCI draws a firm line. Development cannot be imposed. It must be deliberated. And deliberation requires transparency, data, informed debate, and the inclusion of all voices—especially those closest to the realities on the ground. RCCI believes that economic renewal in Rodrigues can only begin when public discourse is restored as a condition of policymaking. A 2023 report on a sustainable and profitable fisheries strategy remains unpublished—yet the Commission is already preparing a donor conference. How can one ask for funding without first engaging all stakeholders in open public debate?
VII. RCCI as a Vehicle for Private Sector–Led Development
The Rodrigues Chamber of Commerce and Industry is more than an association of businesses—it is a vehicle for economic renewal rooted in the creative energy, lived experience, and entrepreneurial ambition of Rodrigues itself. In a structurally dependent economy where the state has long been the principal actor and employer, RCCI provides an alternative development logic: one that places private initiative, enterprise resilience, and community-based economic value creation at the center.
RCCI engages in multiple roles to achieve this mission. It acts as a service platform, offering essential resources, information, and support to local entrepreneurs navigating the island’s constrained economic environment. It is also a think tank, identifying and analysing structural challenges while crafting innovative proposals that balance economic viability with social and environmental realities. RCCI is a partner to public authorities, supporting the development of shared visions and pragmatic collaborations that transcend partisan divides. It is an advocate, promoting an enabling policy framework and voicing the concerns and insights of Rodrigues-based businesses at all levels of governance. And crucially, RCCI is a facilitator of dialogue—connecting economic actors across sectors, backgrounds, and geographies to build trust, foster cooperation, and enable joint initiatives.
In all these roles, the Chamber is guided by its founding conviction: that Rodrigues does not need to catch up with a model of development defined elsewhere, but rather chart its own path by cultivating the strengths of its people, land, and traditions. RCCI thus positions itself not merely as a representative of private sector interests but as a co-architect of Rodrigues’ economic future—one that is locally grounded, socially inclusive, and ecologically sustainable.
VIII. About the RCCI
The Rodrigues Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) was formally registered on 25 September 2024 under the Registration of Associations Act. Its offices are located in Port Mathurin, on the first floor of the LIC Building on Johnson Street.
The Chamber maintains an active online presence through its website at www.rcci.mu, as well as on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Until permanent staff take up their duties, the Chamber receives the public by appointment only. RCCI can be contacted by phone at +230 5936 3435 or +230 5705 7067 (WA), and by email via the Secretary-General at secgen@rcci.mu.
