ICT academy to be set up in Mauritius

ProIT, the first business to business ICT exhibition and conference event in Mauritius, opened on Wednesday morning at the Freeport of Mauritius Exhibition Centre, Mer Rouge.

Among those present was the minister of Information and Communication Technology, Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum.

In his opening address, Chedumbrum said his ministry was striving hard for an ICT academy to be operational at the earliest. “The draft proposal for the setting up of the academy has been completed,” he said.

The academy will be based on the public-private partnership model and will cater to the needs of the ICT/BPO sector as regards availability and competency of human resources.

The minister also highlighted the country’s remarkable achievement in the ICT sector with a six-place ranking improvement to 47th place as per the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011, released last week.

According to the report, which offers an overview of the state of ICT readiness in some 138 countries, Mauritius consolidates its predominance in the sub-Saharan African region.

Chedumbrum added that the government is committed to making the ICT sector a much stronger pillar of the economy through infrastructure development. He cited as examples the setting up of the Rose Belle Technology Park, the availability of telecommunication services at more competitive rates and proper harnessing of human resources.

The three-day event, organised jointly by the National Computer Board and the Mauritius IT Industry Association, targets professionals of the ICT sector.