Nepal won the first friendly match played with Eastern African friendly nation Mauritius recently.

This was Nepal’s first-ever win against any African country in the friendly match series. Nepal and Mauritius are quite similar on the FIFA rankings.

While Nepal is in 169th rankings, Mauritius is in the 172nd position. In the first match played on January 29 this year, Nepal’s striker Bimal Gharti Magar scored a decisive goal against Mauritius (1-0).

Nepal, meanwhile, is hosting a friendly match with Mauritius for the third round when AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers take place in June.

In the second match, Sujal Shrestha scored a decisive 1-0 goal against Mauritius.

Based on The Kathmandu Post report, Nepal and Mauritius both put in better performances than their previous outings.

Nepal, cheered on by a raucous home crowd, took an early 10th-minute lead when Shrestha struck his third international goal.

Midfielder Shrestha, who played both as a midfielder in the first half and as a defender later in the game, finished just a few feet from the goal line.

In a packed zone, he spotted Aashish Lama’s strike from the outskirts of the area before Pujan Uperkoti placed for him in a corner delivery by debutant Nabin Gurung.

As we are paralyzed by the severe impact of the COVID-19 in our day-to-day lives; the medium of entertainment, sports, recreation seriously needs a restart.

Therefore, the friendly match was organized between the two friendly nations.

The diplomatic side of the friendly match was coordinated by the Honorary Consulate of Mauritius, Kathmandu including the Nepal-Mauritius Business Council.

The managerial side of the entire friendly football match was handled by the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA).

On February 2, Honorary Consulate of Mauritius, Kathmandu organized a dinner in honor of the Mauritius National Football team.

The dinner gala was decorated with Nepali authentic dishes, cultural dance as well as the handover of Token love to Mauritius Football team members.

About Mauritius

Mauritius is an Eastern African country (2,040 Square KMs) that belongs to the Indian Ocean Island nation which is popular for beaches, lagoons and reefs.

It is the only African country with a ‘Very High’ Category of Human Development Index (0.804) in the latest data of 2020 developed by UNDP.

France took control of Mauritius in 1715 and renamed it Isle de France.

In 1810, it was seized by Great Britain. Ultimately, its colonial past ended in 1968 when it became independent from Great Britain.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica data, 67% belong to Indo-Pakistani origin, 27.4% are Creole (Mixed Caucasian, Indo-Pakistani, and African).

The Chinese make up 3% of the entire ethnic set up in Mauritius.

In addition to this, based on the 2011 Census of Mauritius; 48.54% are Hindus, 32.71% are Christians and 17.30 percent are Muslims.

English & French are the de-facto language of Mauritius originated from the British & French colonial past.

In 2020, the World Bank had classified Mauritius as a high-income country with a GDP (nominal) of $31.075 billion and Per Capita of $11,683 in according to the data of the International Monetary Fund, 2019.

Mauritius’ Foreign Policy is committed to placing the Republic of Mauritius in a global arena fully integrated into the global system.

The country exported US $2.53 billion worth of goods and services and $5.9 Billion as an import in 2019.

It has already managed to be part of several global forums and multi-lateral institutions such as the UN, WTO, World Bank, Indian Ocean Commission.

Mauritius diplomacy is successful in entering Mauritius in the Schengen Visa Waiver Agreement. The recognition from the EU itself shows Mauritius’s reliability in free global mobility.

Way Forward

The main objective of organizing thwe friendly football match has been aimed at reenergizing the players at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the organizing of international sports.

Secondly, players of the two nations could share their experience while playing in their respective and international grounds.

Moreover, this would also help to open up Nepal and Mauritius for tourism and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

In 2019, Nepal signed a labor pact with Mauritius to send Nepali human resources to Mauritius hospitality industries.

There are several avenues where Nepal-Mauritius could collaborate. The Honorary Consul Mission in Kathmandu, Nepal is just 2 years old (unfortunately those 2 years were also hit by COVID-19) and hadn’t been able to work much on the diplomatic, economic, or sports arena.

Honorary Consul, Ganesh Karki is committed to bringing investment inside Nepal for diversifying the Nepali economy.

While the corporate tax rate in Nepal is a bit high of 25% of the net profit while Mauritius has a corporate tax rate of 15% (flat-rate).

This makes Mauritius an attractive place for Nepali investors to invest. Likewise, Nepal-Mauritius can develop Nepal-Mauritius Bilateral Consultation Mechanism in which a wide range of issues related to bilateral relations and cooperation can be discussed.

This will be a more formal and comprehensive channel; which soon needs to be institutionalized.

Secondly, under this banner, both nations can work especially in mitigating the effects of Climate Change issues.

Climate Change is emerging as the greatest challenge of humankind.

The melting of the Himalayas for Nepal and rising Ocean waters to Mauritius is alarming.

According to Mauritius Metrological Service, the average temperature in Mauritius is rising at the rate of 0.15 degrees Celsius per decade.

Third, exchanging ideas and creating hedge funds for constructing a common ecosystem of start-ups and the tech industry is appropriate.

As per the Frost & Sullivan report, 600 ICT companies now operate in Mauritius with a wider presence of international tech firms like Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, HP, CISCO, Orange Business Service, Accenture, Infosys, Hinduja Group, France Telecom, Ceridian, and the TNT group. So, Nepali startups can be benefited from such type of hedge-fund.

All of above, Nepal and Mauritius are at the crossroads of global political ambitions (Nepal in between India and China) and Mauritius (lies at the Indian Ocean—which is a labyrinth of Indo-Pacific Strategy and US-China geopolitical naval interweave) and rapidly changing dynamics of the 21st century.

That’s why, youths from both countries must have aspirations, responsibilities and guts to build a prosperous future.

(The writer is the Treasurer of Nepal-Mauritius Business Council and Ph.D. Student of International Relations & Diplomacy, Tribhuvan University)