A professor of economics at the University of the South Pacific, Biman Prasad, says Vanuatu has the potential to become the Mauritius of the Pacific.
Mauritius in the Indian Ocean is one of Africa's richest countries and considered to have the highest level of democracy of any African country.
Dr Prasad points to Vanuatu's political stability, its positive economic performance through the global financial crisis and expectations that annual growth will reach five percent by 2015.
But he says the key to Mauritius' success story is it has a favourable bilingual education system, using English and French,
He also says Mauritius has a sound skills training, which Vanuatu still lacks.
