Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, received, this afternoon during a pre-budget consultative meeting in Port Louis, the representatives of the Outsourcing and Telecommunications Association of Mauritius (OTAM) and the Mauritius Information Technology Industry Association (MITIA), to exchange views and listen to their proposals as regards the ICT sector.
Five representatives from OTAM and MITIA participated in the meeting, namely: the Chairperson of OTAM, Mr Roshan Seetohul; its First Vice President, Mrs Jenny Chan; one of its Executive Members, Mr Dev Hurkoo; the President of MITIA, Mr Daryl Rivet; and its Vice President, Mr Vincent Bourelly.
In a statement following the meeting, MITIA’s President highlighted that discussions with Minister Padayachy focused on the difficulties faced by stakeholders of the ICT sector, such as the exchange rate, the purchase of products from the international market, competition from other foreign service providers, and maintaining Mauritius’ competitiveness.
He also indicated that the ‘work from home’ concept and enhancing the accessibility of technology to the elderly were on the agenda.
As for OTAM’s Chairperson, he underscored that the ICT/BPO sector has been very resilient last year, with a Gross Domestic Product contribution of 4,5%.
Nonetheless, he conceded that the sector also has its weaknesses, which have to be tackled so as to enable it to be competitive.
He pointed out that there is a lack of manpower in this sector, with some 7,000 vacant posts to be filled.
As such, he made an appeal to the Minister to accelerate the process to attract foreign skills from the African continent and from India, among others, so that the sector can have a greater turnover.
As regards the main themes discussed during the meeting, Mr Seetohul indicated that they focused on adequate skilled manpower for the sector, the competitiveness of the sector in the region, and the accelerated digital transformation across the country.
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