Africa-Press – Mauritius. Government is working on legislations and building appropriate ecosystem for Mauritius to stand out as an attractive jurisdiction which has implemented Fintech-friendly conceptual and regulatory frameworks within Africa. It is also reinforcing ties with other jurisdictions and international organisations to establish new “Fintech bridges” on a G2G or B2B basis.
The above statement was made by the Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, Mr Mahen Seeruttun, this morning, at the opening of the Huawei International Intelligent Finance Summit at the Intercontinental Resort, Balaclava.
The President of Huawei Enterprise Business Group of Southern African Region, Mr Jovan Liao, and other personalities were also present at the Huawei International Intelligent Finance Summit which brings together attendees from international leading financial institutions and FinTech enterprises to discuss about developments, challenges and trends in Financial Technology (Fintech) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Innovation.
The theme retained for 2022 is “Financial Inclusion, Tech for Good”. In his address, Minister Seeruttun recalled that the Mauritius International Financial Centre provides an ideal and flexible environment for international investors and global technology firms to tap into Fintech ventures across the continent while taking advantage of cooperation agreements with African peers.
The Ministry, he pointed out, is committed to ensuring that the Financial Services Commission implements a series of regulatory frameworks to promote positively disruptive technologies.
They include: guidance notes for the recognition of ‘digital assets’ as an investible class of assets for sophisticated investors and expert funds; licensing framework for custody of digital assets; registration requirements of securities token offerings (STO) and licensing framework of STO trading platforms; and rules for Robotic and Artificial Intelligence Enabled Advisory Services.
The new comprehensive legislation for Virtual Asset Service Providers and Initial Token Offering services is the latest addition to showcase our country as a forward-looking jurisdiction in the digital space, Mr Seeruttun added.
Mauritius, he said, is one of the leading countries in Africa having established a National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence adding that Budget 2021-2022 has made provision for the establishment of a range of path-breaking initiatives such as Fintech Innovation Hubs and Digital Labs.
COVID-19, he pointed out, has accelerated the digitisation transformation with increased reliance on Fintech in every aspect of life from home to work.
The supportive presence of a powerful multi-national such as Huawei on Mauritian ground has helped to provide technology solutions to meet changing and pressing demands, he underlined. Minister Seeruttun also acknowledged the contribution of Huawei to the country’s economic and social development.
One flagship project has been the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Economic Development Board to provide policy consultation on Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and ICT development strategies and the Huawei Smart City project.
Huawei is one of the major taxpayers in Mauritius with annual tax payment of over 2M USD and over the past 10 years, the total amount of local procurement has reached 64 million USD.
According to Mr Liao, Huawei has been deeply involved in the Southern Africa market for a long time and he firmly believes that cooperation, and capability sharing will boost the development of the financial industry in the post-epidemic era.
He also spoke on business and architecture transformation in the financial industry under the general trend of financial inclusion, so that financial services can benefit more people in Africa.
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