India to work closely with Mauritius in ICT

HYDERABAD: India is to work as a close affiliate of Mauritius as it begins its economic development program with its focus on Information and Communication Technology

(ICT), announced Prime Minister of Mauritius, Anerood Jugnauth at a business meeting organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Hyderabad.

"New initiatives by the government in the field of ICT seek to turn Mauritius into a knowledge-based economy and establish ICT as another key instrument of development in the country." He also said that the Line of Credit extended to Mauritius by the government of India is to the tune of $100 million, for launching the ICT drive in island nation

The island nation plans to set up a cyber city, whose first phase would be inaugurated in December 2003. Indian IT bigwigs such as Infosys, Pentasoft and Satyam have already expressed their interest in setting up their facilities in Mauritius.

Mauritius has also established the Business Parks of Mauritius Ltd. (BPML), which has signed an MoU with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

At the same meeting, Digvijay Singh, Minster for State for External Affairs said that telecom, pharmaceutical and healthcare, technology transfer, SME and IT are significant sectors to focus on and promised institutional co-operation for joint ventures.