Despite coronavirus affecting the world, its damaging
impacts on the Mauritian economy and overall negative
outlook for the year 2020, the Mauritian population
remains very optimistic on the country’s future
Mauritius is celebrating its independence day this coming Thursday and
VERDE undertook a nationally representative survey of 400 people from
the 24th Feb to the 8th of March 2020 to understand the overall mood
of the nation.
Overall, freedom and peace are the most important to
the nation as they have a day to commemorate the independence of
the country. The feeling of pride to be Mauritian is significantly strong
scoring 95.8 on 100. Actually, scores, which were above 85 on 100,
encompassed elements of progress which the country has made, the
ability to live in a multi-ethnic country and in harmony and that human
rights are respected and there is democracy. The nation also highlights their appreciation of independence day with 62.7% of respondents believing that independence day is still very significant to extremely significant today (scores of 4 and 5). With the demographic evolution, some important differences across generations’ beliefs, opinions and lifestyles have been published by VERDE since 2018. One thing is clear: the next generation, today’s children and teens, will likely be shaped by very different influences and forces than the generations that preceded it. Age differences shapes people’s view of society and their understanding can be some of the widest and most illuminating. 75.5% of respondents today believe that it is extremely important to preserve the memory of independence day. The figure turns out to be relatively consistent when we take younger generations (namely Gen Y and Z). The greatest achievement since independence according to respondents are (1) economic stability, (2) improved security in the country, (3) improvement in the education system and (4) improved infrastructure. Respondents however feel that more could still be done in matters of diversity and consolidating unity, in technological advancement, and more employment prospects.On the more foregoing context, the population believes that the economic growth and unemployment would be a major challenge over the coming year. Despite coronavirus affecting the world, and the negative outlook for the year 2020, the Mauritian population remains very optimistic on the country’s future. All scores relating to the optimism of the population scored close to 80 points on 100 (scores rebased on a scale of 0 to 100) with people believing that further progress will be achieved in terms of infrastructure, education, healthcare, surveillance and security, monitoring of crime and
STRICTLY PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL
VERDE. 2020 governance. This shows that projects such as the safe city and the numerous infrastructural projects being undertaken by the government have been well received by the population. 77.9% of respondents have stated that the government is meeting their expectations to a large to extremely large extent, demonstrating a unified opinion of the population especially with agovernment in power since few months only. This confidence in the government was confirmed by close to 82% of respondents stating that the country is heading in the right direction.
For more details on the survey, contact VERDE on 214 1900 or by email on info@verdefrontier.mu.
Article published in LeDefi newspaper and published online on https://defieconomie.defimedia.info/article/1695/sondage-sur-lindependance-les-mauriciens-confiants-en-lavenir
