ICT Academy to be set up

Discussions on the public-private partnership project, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Academy, will be finalised by next week.

This was declared by the minister of Information and Communication Technology Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum on Thursday at the 7th annual general meeting of Outsourcing and Telecommunications Association of Mauritius (OTAM) held at Labourdonnais hotel, Port Louis.

The ICT Academy will have training courses for youngsters who are interested in building careers in the ICT sector.

The minister stated that his ministry is coming up with a comprehensive capacity building programme to address the shortage of trained and skilled manpower. “The steering committee is meeting on Friday to finalise the project,” he said.

The ICT ministry is also planning to organise an international conference very soon in collaboration with the main stakeholders including Board of Investment to promote Mauritius as an excellent destination for the BPO sector in the region.

“The conference will target mainly the French market and we will also focus on our bilingual aspect,” he added.

Following continuous demand for bandwidth cost reduction, the ministry is making every effort with the relevant authority to align with OTAM’s request for a further drop in price before the end of the year. “The ICT Act is being reviewed to respond to changes in this sector of the economy,” he added.

The OTAM recently signed a MoU with its Malagasy counterpart, Groupement des Opérateurs TIC de Madagascar with the objective of reinforcing the ICT sector in the Indian Ocean and to contribute to the creation of more links among different ICT operators.

Chedumbrum said, welcomes this initiative which is a clear indication about the vision and commitment to help promote the sector in the region