The International Bilingual Conference on Sustainable Entrepreneurship opened yesterday at Le Meridien Hotel, Balaclava. The three-day event is jointly organised by the Faculty of Law and Management of the University of Mauritius and the Institut de la Francophonie pour L’Entrepreneuriat (IFE), which provides advanced training in entrepreneurship and works towards the promotion of entrepreneurial culture in Francophone countries.
The main objective of the Conference is to promote high-quality research and development among stakeholders in the field of sustainable development pertaining to entrepreneurship. It also provides a platform to participants to establish business or research relations, exchange ideas and experiences and set an agenda for future collaboration and action, with a view to enhancing the understanding of the sustainable development-entrepreneurship nexus and the emergence of new knowledge. Several parallel sessions are scheduled in French and English. Academicians, researchers, policy makers, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders from Argentina, France, India, Madagascar, Namibia, Nigeria, Reunion Island, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Mauritius are attending the Conference.
Launching the Conference, the Minister of Tertiary Education, Science, Research and Technology, Dr Rajeshwar Jeetah, urged local participants to seize the opportunity provided by the Conference to share knowledge and learn from the experiences and best practices from their foreign counterparts in the entrepreneurship sector.
Dr Jeetah reminded that the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector contributes 37% of GDP and accounts for 46% of total employment in Mauritius. He said that Government has initiated several measures such as the introduction of legal framework to facilitate the ease of doing business in Mauritius namely through the Business Facilitation Act. Mauritius presently ranks 19th in the World Bank Publication Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises, jumping five places from the previous report. The 2013 edition report assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 185 economies measured from June 2011 through May 2012 and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business. Dr Jeetah said that the Government’s next target is to rank the country among the fifteen best on the ease of doing business index.
In his address, the Director of IFE, Professor Raymond Guillouzo, stressed that sustainable development is not just a fad but translates a deep desire for a more equitable and environmentally-friendly world. Highlighting the important role that entrepreneurship can play in promoting sustainable economic development, Prof. Guillouzo called for an informed entrepreneurship combined with sustainable development.
The organisation of the Conference is an endeavour to position the University of Mauritius on the scene of international academic conferences.
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