afrol News, 17 April - The government of Mauritius has announced it will develop a new national plan to promote the information and communication technology (ITC) sector, aiming at boosting the number of national companies involved in the sector and creating a new export industry.

The Port Louis Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Asraf Dulull, yesterday said government had embarked on the elaboration of "a new National Strategic Plan for the ICT sector so as to give a new boost to entrepreneurship development in ICT in Mauritius." The Minister said this at the launching of an ICT Business Pre-Incubator cell at the Mauritian University of Technology.

The plan was to take into consideration facilities to create "a more conducive environment for the promotion of a local entrepreneurial culture to attract international partnership and the ICT export potential of Mauritius on regional and international markets as well as measures to promote the development of local content and creativity," according to government.

Minister Dulull further stated that the plan would take into account the existing policies and strategies of the ICT sector, the e-Government initiatives, ICT exploitation across the different economic sectors and households, human resource capacity requirements and existing schemes.

The Minister pointed out that government was committed to creating the right environment for success and to providing incentives to encourage innovation and enterprise to flourish by means of programmes such as innovation centres, science and technology parks and business incubators, which are being highly promoted across the globe to achieve social and economic objectives.

The aim of the setting up of the of the ICT Business Pre-Incubator cell, which is a joint initiative of the National Computer Board and the University of Technology, Mauritius, was said to be "to support potential entrepreneurs with new and innovative ideas in the field of ICT which will contribute towards transforming the ICT sector into the next pillar of the economy and positioning Mauritius as a regional hub for ICT."

In addition, the cell was to help to promote the entrepreneurship culture among students and faculty members with a view to creating a nation of emerging and successful entrepreneurs and future business leaders.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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