Mauritius was ranked first in the African Index on Economic Transformation and Depth, the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) showed Tuesday in its latest report.

The Indian Ocean resort island is ahead of 20 other African countries including South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire, Uganda, Kenya and Gabon, according the report of the ACET.

Among the criteria considered by the ACET in country assessment were the diversification of production and exports, the export competitiveness and profits, increases in productivity, technological enhancement and "economic improvements in human well- being, particularly in expanding formal productive employment."

Mauritius held the first rank in all indices except in the productivity, where the resort island took the second place. In technologies it stood at the 14th.

In the 2000-2001 period, the pillars of growth of Mauritius were sugar, textiles, tourism and the hotel sector, according to the report.

Together with Botswana, Mauritius had the most impressive growth in the GDP per capita from 1971 to 2010. From a growth rate of 0.6 percent per year in the 1970s, the GDP per capita rose rapidly to 5.1 percent per year in the 1980s, when Maurice began its transformation from an exporter of mono-culture exporter of textiles and clothing sugar.

Its GDP per capita has more than tripled from 1981 to 2010.

The share of manufacturing in the GDP increased from an average of 19 percent in 1970 to 25 percent in the 1980s, but dropped to 17 percent in 2011.

The report notes the progress made by Mauritius in international indexes of rule of law, investment, and ease of doing business.

"The island is the first in sub-Saharan Africa on the rule of law index. It has made progress on the ease of doing business, ranked 19th out of 183 countries in 2012 Doing Business Index, first in Africa, ahead of South Africa (34th) and Botswana (59th).

"It is also ranked 14th in the world on the ease of starting a business and the strength of investor protection and 12th on the ease of paying taxes, " the report said.

The South Africa-based ACET was created in 2007 to promote the quality of services of political analysis and consulting and to assist African governments in achieving the long-term growth and transformation of African economies.