Africa-Press – Mauritius. The first Inter-Ministerial Committee meeting on the Monitoring and Implementation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) dedicated to services was chaired, today, by the Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Alan Ganoo, in Port-Louis.
The Vice-Prime Minister (VPM), Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Mrs Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, and other personalities were present on this occasion.
The aim of the session was to take stock of the measures and actions being taken by different stakeholders concerned in a bid to maximise the opportunities for the services sector under the various trade agreements signed by the Republic of Mauritius, including the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement, the Mauritius-China FTA and, the African Continental FTA.
In his opening address, Minister Ganoo recalled that the last two Inter-Ministerial meetings focused, amongst others, on issues related to trade in goods; the need for better connectivity with key export markets; focused marketing strategy to boost exports and attract investment; and the restructuring of the manufacturing sector to diversify our product base and to promote Mauritius as a destination for the manufacture of high-end products.
The need to address the shortage of labour in the manufacturing sector was also of high priority, he added. He highlighted that, as the services sector is multidimensional, a number of subcommittees co-chaired by the public and private sectors were set up to specifically look at, namely, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), financial, health, tourism, education, logistics and distribution services sectors, among others.
The recommendations and outcomes of the Inter-Ministerial meeting will then be presented to the Cabinet for validation, he pointed out. Furthermore, Minister Ganoo indicated that the sectoral subcommittees met several times and have come up with a set of recommendations whose implementation would contribute to boost up exports of services.
“There are recommendations that cut across all services sectors, namely regulatory bottlenecks, labour shortages, capacity-building issues, export readiness and trade and investment promotion activities, amongst others,” underlined the Minister. On this score, he dwelt on some recommendations made to boost services in different sectors.
As regards the ICT sector, Mr Ganoo observed that the recommendations focused on: the strategic digitalisation roadmap, including the monitoring of implementation of measures to attain the objectives of Digital Mauritius and Vision 2030; developing local capacity in digital technologies; improving digital connectivity and; adopting international standards.
The recommendations in the Financial Services sector, he added, comprise the sensitisation and promotion of the Mauritius International Financial Centre and enhancing Mauritius Financial Services products.
As for the Health and Medical Services sector, Minister Ganoo underlined that the main recommendation was to set up a leading agency so as to promote the export of health services in a bid to positioning Mauritius as an internationally recognised medical education hub, as well as an international medical destination.
The Vice-Prime Minister, for her part, affirmed that our country is already well-positioned as a regional educational hub and receives a number of requests from countries of the region for their youth to study in Mauritius.
“Africa has a large population of youths and they are very keen to obtain a place to pursue their higher education in Mauritius,” she pointed out.
In addition, VPM Dookun-Luchoomun stressed that there is a high demand from the African continent for studies in the medical and engineering fields, and that Mauritius has the skills and institutions to deliver relevant quality education services.
“In this context, we have decided to work together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade and the Economic Development Board to find out to what extent we can attract foreign students and provide them with quality service”, she stated.
The VPM further underscored that existing local regulatory bodies such as the Mauritius Qualifications Authority and the Higher Education Commission can provide other countries with the expertise of managing business and services in Mauritius.
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