Sugar had been the only income source of Mauritius for long time and almost whole island is covered by sugar cane plantation. As sugar price dropped in the world market significantly, they had to look for industry. They have many highly educated engineers from European universities and cheap labors, mostly immigrants from India, attracting foreign investors. They established Free Trade Zone, but whole island was practically free zone, as they didn't have any industrial experience and custom officers didn't know how to calculate import duties.