Mauritius is keen on partnering the Indian information and communication technology (ICT) sector to jointly tap the huge potential of the African nations. Mauritius, which plans to set up an international disaster recovery centre and a software development centre, has also sought active participation of Indian ICT companies in these projects.
“India and Mauritius can jointly tap opportunities in the ICT sector in the African continent. Such partnership also enables India to benefit from the double taxation avoidance treaty which Mauritius has with countries of eastern and southern Africa.
Our bilingual workforce (English and French) would also add value to such partnership,” Mauritius Minister of Information and Communication Technology Asraf Dulull told The Hindu.
About the two projects, Mr. Dulull said: “Mauritius is viewed as an attractive location for an MNC (multi-national company) to host its disaster recovery and business continuity centre. With its excellent telecommunication infrastructure, regulatory framework and low tax regimes, Mauritius is well positioned for hosting data centres. Our aim is to attract key players in the data centre industry; and many are those who have already expressed their interests in Mauritius as an International Data Centre. India can play a leading role in setting up the required infrastructure and training and deploying trained staff.
Conference
The forthcoming international conference in October on ‘Internet Data Centre’ will be a determining factor for investors to bring in their contribution”.
“India can provide assistance to Mauritius in order to develop our human resource requirements in ICT through training opportunities for young Mauritians and by encouraging and facilitating well-known and famous ICT training institutions in India to open branches in Mauritius or to operate in partnership with local educational and training institutions. A number of training institutions from India are already operating in Mauritius or have entered into partnership with our universities and other private training institutions to dispense a series of training courses,” he pointed out. The Minister urged Indian ICT companies to invest in Mauritius and asked IT professionals to come and work in that country.
