1. Cabinet has agreed to the introduction into the National Assembly of the Finance Bill 2003 which provides for the implementation of measures announced in the Budget Speech and for the strengthening and streamlining of certain provisions relating mainly to revenue and public finance.
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2. Cabinet has agreed to all domestic properties in sewered areas being connected to the sewerage system free of charge.
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3. Cabinet has agreed to the recommendations of the Committee on Transport Problems Encountered by the Public in some parts of the Island, which inter alia include that –
(a) Express bus services will be extended to the central business areas of Port Louis during morning peak hours;
(b) a holding area/terminus will be created at Coromandel for some 40 buses which will stop their journey there instead of coming to Port Louis during peak hours;
(c) contract buses conveying industrial workers will be allowed to perform leisure trips during week-ends and public holidays; and
(d) contract buses of up to 20 years instead of 16 years will be allowed to provide school and industrial services.
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4. Cabinet has taken note that –
(a) Mr Jacques Gerard Philippe Hitié and Mr Kamben Padayachy have been appointed Chairman of the Sugar Investment Trust Leisure Co. Ltd and of the Sugar Investment Trust Land Holdings Ltd respectively; and
(b) Mr Basdeo Gobhardhun has been appointed Chairman of the Mauritius Sugar Terminal Corporation.
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5. Cabinet has taken note of the constitution of -
(i) the Parole Board under the chairmanship of Mr P. Bissessur;
(ii) the Prisons Board of Visitors under the chairmanship of Mr N.F. Ohsan- Bellepeau, Magistrate, Intermediate Court;
(iii) the Correctional Youth Centre under the chairmanship of Dr M. Motah; and
(iv) the Discharged Persons Aid Committee under the chairmanship of
Mr R. Manrakhan.
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6. Cabinet has taken note that the Minister of Social Security, National Solidarity & Senior Citizens Welfare and Reform Institutions will make regulations under section 46 of the National Pensions Act and under section 24 of the National Savings Fund Act to provide for the increase in the minimum and the maximum salaries on which contributions are payable to the respective funds with a view to keeping up with the earnings and to ensuring that the contributors will, at the time of retirement, receive a contributory retirement pension more in line with the prevailing cost of living.
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7. Cabinet has taken note of steps being taken for the redeployment of redundant workers of the Export Processing Zone. A Committee under the chairmanship of the Ministry of Labour and Industrial Relations has been set up to work out procedures for and to monitor the redeployment of the redundant workers.
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8. Cabinet has taken note that the pupils of Dr O Beaugeard State Primary School, as well as those temporarily housed at the ex-Immaculée Conception State Primary School, will move to the new premises at the Arya Ravived Pracharini Sabha building, near Champ de Mars, as from 7 July 2003.
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9. Cabinet has taken note that Mauritius will participate in a World Health Survey to be conducted by the World Health Assembly with a view to gathering data on health states, disability, responsiveness and provision of heath services in a wide range of health systems with a view to developing a means of providing valid, reliable and comparable information at low cost and to supplement the information provided by routine health information systems.
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10. Cabinet has taken note of activities that will be organized in the context of the World Population Day 2003. The theme chosen by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities for this year is “One billion adolescents: the right to health, information and services”.
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11. Cabinet has taken note of the outcome of the missions of –
(a) the Minister of Arts and Culture to Senegal where he attended the First Meeting of the ACP Ministers of Culture held on 20 June 2003; and
(b) the Minister of Economic Development, Financial Services and Corporate Affairs to Egypt where he attended the WTO Mini-Ministerial Meeting held on 21 and 22 June 2003.
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