Mauritius opens IT doors to India now

Mauritius opens IT doors to India now
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

Hyderabad, March 12: Move over Germany and the US. Our friendly neighbour, Mauritius, now plans to welcome Infotech professionals and firms from India.

Its Minister for Information & Technology and Telecommunications Deelchand Jeeha said on Sunday that plans were afoot to establish a `Cyber City' in the Indian Ocean and invite IT firms from India and other countries to start their operations in Mauritius. Jeeha is on a five-day visit to India with a business delegation.

Jeeha also said the Indian firms would be allowed to bring in their own IT experts and all administrative hurdles and red tapism would be reduced. Besides exempting personal tax of the Indian IT experts, the Mauritius Government would issue green visas on the lines of the US.

He said that modalities were being worked out for the proposed "Cyber City" and its construction would begin within two to three months with the help of private firms. The Mauritius Government has set up three task forces for the Cyber City, e-governance and e-education.

Some of the Indian firms like Infosys and Pentasoft have already asked the government to provide land in the Cyber City, which was under consideration of the government.

Jeeha also urged the universities and other educational institutions from Karnataka to open branches in Mauritius to help improve human resources in his country.

He said an MoU had already been signed between the Mauritius and Karnataka Governments in the field of ICT and even the Manipal University had agreed to open a technology institute in his country.

The Indian Institute of Sciences and the Space Research Centre at Bangalore has assured to assist the Mauritius Government set up similar institutes, he said.

The Indian Government has provided a line of credit to the tune of US $ 100 million to the Mauritius Government during the visit of Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth in January this year. This amount would be utilised for launching e-education for its students, computerise public services and e-governance.