Africa-Press – Mauritius. The ground-breaking ceremony of AVA Technopark Project was performed this afternoon, by the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, at the Côte d’Or Data Technology Park.
The Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, the French Ambassador to Mauritius, Mrs Florence Caussé-Tissier, the founder and president of AVA Technopark, Mr Vincent Lagarde, and other personalities were present on that occasion.
AVA Technopark Project will become the first medical devices technopark in Mauritius. In his address, the Prime Minister stated that the creation of a technopole marks a new chapter for the digital economy in Mauritius and is a project that is in line with Government’s development strategy aimed at promoting technology innovation.
The Côte d’Or Data Technology Park, he highlighted, has as ambition to boost the development of high-end technology activities across the country and with this project is enabling the elaboration of our digital future.
As the world is entering a new digital era, it became vital to stimulate a digital ecosystem in the country, he remarked. Thus, we are building in Côte d’Or, a Technology Park spread over an area of 143 arpents, and this Park will be part of the future Côte d’Or Smart and Administrative City, he pointed out.
The Prime Minister further said that infrastructure works for the Technology Park will cost around Rs 900 million and will be completed by the end of 2022.
According to him, the site will allow high value-added manufacturing enterprises, tertiary and research institutions, incubators and start-ups, to operate. Once construction works are completed, plots of land will be attributed to operators who wish to establish their enterprises, he observed.
The technopole, he recalled, is constituted of 11 specialised clusters and each will house a specific sector such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, teaching and research, food technology, and health technologies. This, he underscored, will create a synergy to promote innovation which is essential for economic progress.
We are convinced that it is necessary to invest in innovation to succeed in spurring the economy post-COVID as innovation is a key competitive lever for the creation of the activities and the jobs of the future, stated Mr Jugnauth.
For the Prime Minister, the transformation that the country has embarked upon is oriented towards the 4.0 industry and the transition en route for the future industry is at the core of our development strategy.
We want to bring about a new industrial revolution, 40 years after our first successful venture with the industrial free zone, and this will require more than just political will and will entail having the necessary skills to achieve the second economic miracle, he emphasised.
Government, he reassured, will pursue its efforts in attracting more investments and innovative enterprises and in promoting a business-conducive environment.
Mauritius is already implementing training programmes to sustain the development of human capital and is anticipating the needs of the industry on the medium term, he stated.
The Prime Minister also expressed satisfaction that Natec Medical Ltd, an international company, has chosen the first technopark of Mauritius to pursue its expansion.
The setting up of its subsidiary AVA Technopark at the Côte d’Or Data Technology Park is a natural step of its development and AVA Technopark aims at encouraging other companies working in the same field to operate from its park dedicated to the development of medical technologies, he said.
We are probably assisting to the creation of a global pole for the manufacturing of medical devices in Côte d’Or, he added. For her part, the French Ambassador recalled that Natec Medical Ltd, present in Mauritius as from 2000, is an example of an enterprise which has been able to develop in a then nascent sector.
The enterprise now employs more than 500 employees, she stated. The laying of a foundation stone, she further highlighted, also equates to building by looking at the future and this future has been mapped out by the Government of Mauritius with the focus on the development of medical and pharmaceutical industries.
The Côte d’Or Data Technology Park symbolises a model of a successful cooperation venture between the public and private sectors and despite several difficulties, economic recovery is being made possible through diversified and resilient means, she added.
As for Mr Lagarde, he observed that with the recent challenges posed by the COVID-19, Mauritius needs to reinvent itself and create new concepts which will ensure the future economic development of the country such as innovation and high-end technology.
With the creation of the AVA Technopark Project, an industrial park valorising these new concepts, the Natec group and the private sector will take the country to new heights on the international front, he assured.
It is recalled that Government had announced the creation of a Data Technology Park at Côte d’Or in the Budget 2020/21. Landscope (Mauritius) Ltd was entrusted the responsibility of implementing the Park to be constructed on a plot of land of approximately 63.3 hectares belonging to Landscope.
The Côte d’Or Data Technology Park was launched on 01 June 2021. The Data Technology Park is expected to attract investors to explore avenues in the sector of digital and new technologies.
It is foreseen that within five years, the park will be able to offer an additional 100 000 m2 of premises. Some 5,000 jobs in the innovation and technology sectorare expected to be created through the project.
A total of 11 operators have received approval to develop projects in the Data Technology Park. AVA Techno Park Ltd, a subsidiary of Natec Medical Ltd, became the first promoter to accept the terms and conditions of the Letter of Comfort.
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