Mauritius to strengthen links with India

By V. Jayanth

CHENNAI, DEC. 20. Mauritius has decided to strengthen its links with India and collaborate with professionals and intellectuals here to enhance its educational and training facilities.

Mr. Ramduthsing Jaddoo, a former Minister and now the brain behind a movement to revamp higher education, is now in India to finalise this programme and establish firm and close links with some of the south Indian centres like Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Talking to The Hindu here today, Mr. Jaddoo said: ``We have the traditional colleges and courses. But we now feel the need for higher and hi-tech education in management and the application of Information Technology in various sectors.''

He said a University of Technology was taking shape in his country, through a private initiative. Since the existing Mauritius Institute of Public Management was closing down, the Government was also keen on encouraging this initiative and utilising its services to re-train and upgrade the management skills of its officers.

Mr. Jaddoo, who visited the IIT and met some of the leading educationists, explained that a consultancy centre would be established very soon to source the talent from this region for Mauritius. This could be both for employment and in the training faculty.

Himself a former Minister for Human Resource Development, Mr. Jaddoo said both Government Ministries / institutions and the private sector needed modern, IT-friendly management training to equip themselves for the era of globalisation.

From the Ministries and the traditional industry like sugar, to the service and financial sectors from banking and insurance to tourism, there was an urgent need to re-train the managers and update their skills.

They had to use IT to service their regional and international operations.

Since Mauritius was already an off-shore and financial hub, with a regional and international profile, there was a greater need to upgrade managerial skills.

Instead of always looking to the West, he and his friends decided to source this talent from India, which had a rich pool of experts.

During this scouting trip, he would visit Bangalore, Manipal and Hyderabad to identify institutions and people with whom the University of Technology could interact.

The consultancy centre to be set up here to follow up on these links and tie-up with them for a regular exchange programme, signing MoUs with the new university in Mauritius.

Mr. Munbodh Suresh, a consultant, educationist and also chairman of the National Computer Board, who is accompanying Mr. Jaddoo, said an official delegation from Mauritius would visit India in January. Led by the Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunications, the delegation would highlight Mauritius' vision for the development of IT in the country.

The Minister was likely to unveil an attractive package for Indians to both invest in Mauritius and take up professional appointments there. The official delegation would visit New Delhi and then the southern centres to follow up on the work of this scouting mission.

Both of them expressed complete satisfaction even with the first phase of their southern expedition. They had established a link with the IIT here and tapped Chennai's potential for training in finance, economics, IT and management already. This would be strengthened further through links in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The Pai foundation in Manipal had already decided to establish an institution in Mauritius and they would like it to expand the service in due course.

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