AIC2030 City Monograph · October 2026
Port Louis
Custodian of the Indian Ocean Blue Corridor. The Custodial Ocean Economy: port activity, ocean development, governance and diplomacy
The key must open. The star must remain dependable.
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About the monograph
Custodianship is earned. Not conferred.
Port Louis connects a national gateway, maritime enterprise and the wider ocean. This monograph asks what the city has been, what its people and institutions can sustain, and what would have to be true before the title Custodian of the Indian Ocean Blue Corridor could be earned in practice.
Custodianship is defined as an obligation to preserve useful connections and the conditions for their renewal. It gives Mauritius no authority over another state’s trade, ports or marine space: partners retain meaningful choice, productive rights and independent recourse.
Five parts move from the city’s formation to its gateway, productive connections, ocean industries and enduring institutions. Evidence, Government proposals, reported negotiations and authorial illustrations retain distinct status throughout.
The gateway that must hold
The national gateway and landlord port carry an essential public purpose, while regional and way-port services must establish their own customer advantage in a competitive ocean.
Connections that create value
A regional fleet, the Blue Corridor and five productive circuits trace how maritime transactions become enterprise capability, skilled work and retained value ashore.
A productive, governed ocean
Ocean industries, a port-anchored Blue Special Economic Zone, shared-sea governance and the Port Louis–Ébène relationship culminate in a first-decade Port Louis Compact.
Inside the publication
The city, part by part.
Ten chapters in five parts move from the harbour and the capital through the gateway, productive connections and the governed ocean to the institutions that make it endure.
Also includes a prologue, reading guide, sources and method, twelve redrawn figures, three appendices including an evidence and decision register, a glossary and a subject index.
- 01The Harbour and the Capitalp. 7
- 02The National Gateway and Landlord Portp. 13
- 03The Way Port in a Competitive Oceanp. 16
- 04A Regional Fleet and the Blue Corridorp. 20
- 05The Economic System of a Custodian Cityp. 23
- 06From Maritime Transactions to Productive Enterprisep. 30
- 07Ocean Industries and Blue Special Economic Zonesp. 36
- 08Governing and Negotiating the Shared Seap. 46
- 09Port Louis and Ébènep. 54
- 10People, Time and the Port Louis Compactp. 58
Read the complete monograph
Port Louis: Custodian of the Indian Ocean Blue Corridor
October 2026 publication edition · English · 82 pages