The 2nd Pan Commonwealth Conference on Services Trade with the theme “Creating an enabling environment for information technology services”, was held from 20 to 22 April 2010, at the Four Points by Sheraton in Ebène.
The conference organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with the World Bank Institute, the Regional Multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence (RMCE), Mauritius and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and Mauritius, served as a platform where both local and foreign participants assessed and made an overview of the current status of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector particularly in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis. A comprehensive set of recommendations on how to create an enabling environment to harness potentials of the ICT sector has also been drawn out.
Among the different issues discussed during the conference were, an overview of trends and performance in services trade, the statistics gap, enabling information and technology enabled services (ITeS) export development, a regional outlook of services trade, the role of EPAs in supporting services reform in Africa, the Caribbean experience, opportunities and strategies in IT-enabled services, COMESA experience, Mauritius ICT/ITeS experience, and trends in services trade.
As regards ICT development in Mauritius, the country is following a two-fold strategy to transform itself into a regional ICT hub as well as emerge as a leader in some identified areas namely, networking, mobile technologies and information security, and be seen as a preferred centre of ICT skills, expertise and employment in the region. Mauritius is also cooperating with other countries of the region to boost its availability of skilled ICT manpower to achieve the objective of transforming the country into a cyber-island.
The ICT sector in Mauritius registered a growth rate of 14.7% in 2009 and its contribution to GDP has been nearly 6% with more than 300 companies operating in the sector mainly ITeS/BPO, and ICT exports are estimated at Rs 3 billion of which 90% are trade in services. To further promote Mauritius as a business hub, Mauritius is rethinking its overall strategy on different fronts, mainly infrastructure development and manpower planning, and the need to have a pool of globally competitive Infocom professionals.
It is considered that with the existing SAFE cable, the country has seen a vibrant development of its BPO/ITeS sector and the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION) cable, a vital link to Madagascar and Reunion Island, has further helped the country to consolidate and expand its connectivity in the region.
The conference organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with the World Bank Institute, the Regional Multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence (RMCE), Mauritius and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and Mauritius, served as a platform where both local and foreign participants assessed and made an overview of the current status of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector particularly in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis. A comprehensive set of recommendations on how to create an enabling environment to harness potentials of the ICT sector has also been drawn out.
Among the different issues discussed during the conference were, an overview of trends and performance in services trade, the statistics gap, enabling information and technology enabled services (ITeS) export development, a regional outlook of services trade, the role of EPAs in supporting services reform in Africa, the Caribbean experience, opportunities and strategies in IT-enabled services, COMESA experience, Mauritius ICT/ITeS experience, and trends in services trade.
As regards ICT development in Mauritius, the country is following a two-fold strategy to transform itself into a regional ICT hub as well as emerge as a leader in some identified areas namely, networking, mobile technologies and information security, and be seen as a preferred centre of ICT skills, expertise and employment in the region. Mauritius is also cooperating with other countries of the region to boost its availability of skilled ICT manpower to achieve the objective of transforming the country into a cyber-island.
The ICT sector in Mauritius registered a growth rate of 14.7% in 2009 and its contribution to GDP has been nearly 6% with more than 300 companies operating in the sector mainly ITeS/BPO, and ICT exports are estimated at Rs 3 billion of which 90% are trade in services. To further promote Mauritius as a business hub, Mauritius is rethinking its overall strategy on different fronts, mainly infrastructure development and manpower planning, and the need to have a pool of globally competitive Infocom professionals.
It is considered that with the existing SAFE cable, the country has seen a vibrant development of its BPO/ITeS sector and the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION) cable, a vital link to Madagascar and Reunion Island, has further helped the country to consolidate and expand its connectivity in the region.
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