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Business Profile
Economy: Successive years of drought and encroaching desert have consumed large areas of Mauritania’s cultivable land. More than half the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture producing vegetables, millet, rice and dates, and rearing livestock, mostly in the area south of the Senegal River. The quantities produced are insufficient to meet domestic needs and Mauritania relies on imports of basic foodstuffs.
Fishing is essential both to domestic needs and the country’s export income, also for the revenue from licences granted to foreign fleets from Korea, Japan and Russia. Mining is Mauritania’s principal industry: the main products are iron ore (output of which has been cut due to falling demand), gypsum and gold. There are plans to exploit the country’s copper reserves, which were long thought uneconomic, as well as newly located diamond deposits. Offshore drilling for oil and gas fields has recently begun. Nonetheless, Mauritania will remain an exceptionally poor country for the foreseeable future and a major aid recipient, with other Arab countries as the main donors. The IMF and World Bank have given some economic support in exchange for the standard economic reform programme.
Current economic growth is around five per cent annually. Nonetheless, Mauritania’s financial position remains precarious. Japan and the southern EU countries are the main export markets, while the major exporters to Mauritania are France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. Mauritania is a member of the Union of the Arab Maghreb. It was also a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) until its withdrawal from the organisation in 2000.
Business: Use forms of address as for France, eg ‘Monsieur le Directeur’. It is essential that business people have a sound knowledge of French, as very few executives speak English. Office hours: Sun-Thurs 0800-1500.
Commercial Information: The following organisation can offer advice: Chambre de Commerce, d’Agriculture, d’Elevage, d’Industrie et des Mines de Mauritanie, Avenue de la Republique, BP 215, Nouakchott (tel: 252 214; fax: 253 895).
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