of economic depreciation ; for example, new applications requiring greater speed or more memory sometimes make existing computers effectively obsolete within a few years. high rates of economic depreciation imply rapid replacement cycles, and hence high rates of gross investment in computers. tevlin and whelan showed that these two factors - low and falling prices of computing power and high economic depreciation rates - can explain much of the high rates of gross investment in computers during the nineties ; and that these high rates of investment in computers in turn help to explain a substantial part of the overall investment boom. although econometric models can do a reasonable job of explaining the investment boom of the late nineties, standard models do not fully capture other factors that boosted investment spending during that period, especially in the high - tech sector. for example, the telecommunications act of 1996 was intended to increase competition in the telecom sector. many firms apparently believed that the dominant market share would go to companies with the biggest networks and the most " cutting - edge " technologies ; consequently, investment boomed in the telecom sector. similarly, deregulation of the electric power grid may have spurred increased investment in power systems. outside the legislative arena, rapidly increasing access to the internet raised the possibility of a huge new on - line demand for products and services, which spurred a wave of new dot - com startup companies hoping to be the first to meet that anticipated demand. established firms, from booksellers to clothing retailers, responded with their own on - line marketing outlets, which further boosted the demand for servers, software, and other components. in addition, concerns about the potential effects of the y2k date change led many firms to accelerate their replacement cycles and order new software and computing equipment. in short, during the latter part of the nineties, strong economic fundamentals conjoined with what, in retrospect in least, seems to have been a less well grounded increase in general optimism about the long - term potential of new technologies. ( i say " seems " in all seriousness. we are not in the long run yet. ) in any event, given this optimism and the attendant rise in earnings forecasts and the stock market, together with good fundamentals in terms of high demand, falling equipment prices, and moderate financing costs, the late - nineties boom in investment is perhaps not so difficult to understand. the investment bust of 2000 - 02 in the second half of 2000, business fixed investment began to decline markedly ;

rundheersing bheenick : banking in mauritius – a central banker ’ s viewpoint address by mr rundheersing bheenick, governor of the bank of mauritius, at the launch ceremony of afrasia bank limited, port louis, 2 october 2007. this is the transcript of the impromptu remarks of the governor. footnotes have been added to provide context for some of the issues which would have been obvious to the original audience. * * * i am delighted to be here this evening in such distinguished company for several reasons. it is the first time that i, as governor, have given a banking licence to a new operator. it is normal therefore that i should take some pride in the launching of its operations this evening. i am also delighted that afrasia bank is the first of the three banks, which were granted a licence in principle just before i assumed office, to get going. i hope that the fact that it is first out of the stalls does not mean that the other two must tarry too long in the starting stalls and that they would soon be joining the race to give the other established 19 banks in mauritius a good run for their money. and that is exactly what our consumers expect. we as regulator, together with my colleagues from the financial services commission, can only take pride in the fact that there are more and more people who are knocking at our doors and asking for a licence to operate in our financial sector. it is a sign that our jurisdiction is respected locally and internationally. i arrived this afternoon, barely a few hours after the chairman of this bank, after attending a meeting where i am happy to say that mauritius had pride of place 1. people showed great interest in setting up shop here and were asking questions about us. they believe that we have a serious team in government ; they believe that we have people here who know what they are doing ; they believe that the currency is stable and that this country has a bright future. and that, i think, is what banking is all about. in a country where there is no confidence there is no banking. banking is built on trust. banking is built on the future. our colleagues from afrasia bank have taken a very long time before they applied for a bank licence. they just told us that it's more than a century since groupe mon loisir, the main promoters, have been in business here. so it makes me wonder why they took so long. after all, the mauritius commercial bank has