SPEECH JACUES DUNIENVILLE.

Excellency SA and Lady Jugnauth.

I am delighted to welcome all of you to our dinner to-night. It is very heartening that there has been such an enthusiastic response to our invitations to honour a distinguished set of Mauritians.

To start, I would like to say a special Hi to a Pakistani couple Adil and Zainab who have chosen to spend their honeymoon in our country.

I would like to congratulate a lover of music, dance and books who enjoys collecting diplomas. Holder of an International Diploma in Compliance, a degree in Finance and Law, this young lady, Nafeesa Emamally has taken the first place worldwide in Paper P7 at the ACCA and received an award for Paper P8. Please, join your hands for a round of applause for Nafeesa who has made us all proud to be Mauritian.

A Hi to Dr. Emilien, this Mauritian who has spent most of his active life in Europe and who is helping establish a centre for medical research in his native land.

Congratulations to Sawkut Rojid, Alif’s former Secretary, Director of the Seychelles desk at the World Bank who has won his PhD in Economics.

Congratulations to Prem Saddul, our new Mr. CWA who is working flat out to assure a supply of water to everybody. Wish him good luck

Last but not the least, congratulations to my Granddaughter, Ameera who has passed her Masters at Imperial College, London.

I am going to invite Ali Parkar to speak in honour of H E the new Indian High Commissioner.

Ladies and Gentleman,

During this atmosphere of gloom and doom among our trading partners, our country has not only just been able to keep its head above the waters but to register a growth of 4%. This feat is not a magic but the fruits of the efforts of our visionaries. At testing times, we have to make choices that will determine the future shape of our economy. Jacques Dunienville, the new President of the MSS is one prominent figure who is drawing the new architecture of our economy. He is transforming the sugar industry into a cane industry. Who is Jacques Dunienville? What does it take to produce a Jacques Dunienville? You will need an exhaustive list of adjectives to describe this man.
First of all you need parents and grandparents who are in the sugar farm and the sugar factory and who inculcate the spirit of adventure in their offspring by producing boats and dreaming of sailing to the unknown. Jacques Marrier Dunienville holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and has 15 years of work experience in France, the Seychelles and Mauritius. His expertise lies in the strategic development of new projects in sugar production and refining, independent power production, waste and environment management and renewable energy projects. He joined Société Usinière du Sud in 2005 as Chief Executive Officer. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Omnicane Limited and the Chairperson of Omnicane Thermal Energy Operations (La Baraque) Limited and Omnicane Thermal Energy Operations (St Aubin) Limited.
He is a board member of several sugar sector institutions. He is presently President of the Mauritius Sugar Syndicate and has served as President of the Mauritius Sugar Producers’ Association in 2005/2006 and 2009/2010.
The talk of the day is to go green, to create green jobs and to get a lucrative share of the growing market for environmentally sustainable technologies, goods and services. Through the MID philosophy, our strategy has been clear: growth must come from the private sector because it is vibrant; it likes to innovate and let us not hide the truth: it is our lifeline.
Jacques is daring into areas where application of new technologies and the demand for sustainable solutions present his company with significant challenges and opportunities. He has pushed the frontiers of what’s possible: he has tackled the problem of climate change, used effectively our natural resources, secured low-carbon energy supply, cut our carbon emissions all to make of this country a lot better place. Consequently, our economic growth will depend on the raw materials provided by our environment and the way we can best manage them in the decades to come. Our island has become a lot better place to live.
The fame of Jacques is not limited to Mauritius alone. His project has interested the Prince of Perlis in Malaysia and he is setting up a unit in Kenya. The Private Sector must be congratulated for its wise choice and we, citizens of this country, rejoice that the right man is at the seat to guide our economy. Congratulations and best of luck, Jacques.