Analysing institutional and government support for the development of Mauritian SMEs

This research paper provides an insight about the institutional and government support for the development of small medium enterprises (SMEs) in Mauritius over the past two decades. The rationale of the study is that SME growth and development is still a problematic issue despite years of government support and incentives. The article seeks to analyse changes with regards to government policy decisions, namely laws, incentives and innovation schemes provided to SMEs in the Mauritian context. The methodology used is the content analysis where reference is made to websites (SME support arm and institutions from 1993 onwards), secondary data, budget speech documents, Parliamentary Hansard documents and existing statistics for making appropriate analysis. The methodology is mostly qualitative and relies on extensive research on government reports and other research findings to consolidate a logical sequencing of the SME laws in the Mauritian context. The study is of great importance to the policymakers and the different stakeholders for understanding the importance of institutional support for SMEs for a small island economy such as Mauritius.