Roy Steiner, Phd, is managing director of Cyberplex Africa, Zimbabwe's largest web solutions firm located on the sixth floor of Kopje Plaza (Tel: 777161/4) in Harare. He welcomes comments and ideas at roy@cyberplexafrica.com

The example of Mauritius and its approach to the development of its information technology (IT) sector provides an important model to other countries in southern Africa.

The Mauritius government recognised very early that this sector was a key to the future of the nation and has embarked on some highly ambitious and long-range plans.

As all of us know, Mauritius has experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades. This has transformed the country from a low-income monocrop economy, with a narrow production base at the time of its independence, to a middle-income country with a more diversified structure, reliant on four main economic pillars, namely manufacturing, sugar, tourism and financial services.

With annual rates of growth of over five percent and a per capita income exceeding US$3 500, Mauritius has graduated to a group of upper middle -income countries.

Notwithstanding its economic success, Mauritius has had to reckon with a number of challenges to ensure sustainable development. The traditional sectors are increasingly running out of steam, and unemployment is rising.

On the external front, the competitive edge of Mauritius is under threat. The rapid pace of technological progress, the increasing integration of global commodity and financial markets, the emergence of new low-cost competitor countries, the strengthening of major trading blocs, the likely erosion of market preferences under the World Trade Organisation regime, and the increase in non-tariff barriers in the form of "green" and "social" protectionism all require innovative, flexible and determined responses.

In this context, the government of Mauritius had decided to place very high priority on the development of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector to transform the country into a cyber island. The ICT sector will not only evolve as the fifth pillar of growth but will also revamp traditional sectors.

It is believed that by cutting across all sectors, information technology will enhance productivity and quality, and improve competitiveness.

The aim is to create an ICT sector that will enable Mauritius to plug fully into the Net economy and help this part of the world to be a full participant in the digital economy.

What makes this goal different in Mauritius compared to many other Southern Africa Development Community countries is that tremendous political will is being invested in the approach. A ministerial committee which is chaired by the prime minister has been set up to:

Monitor progress as regards the development of the New Economy, in particular the implementation of a "cybercity" project.

Follow up and coordinate action on the strategic partnership entered between India and Mauritius regarding IT development in Mauritius.

Monitor the utilisation of the line of credit of US$100 million obtained from the Indian authorities.

Three ministerial task forces have been set up under the ministerial committee to look into the development of a cybercity and business parks, e-government and e-education and training respectively.

In its objective to promote the accelerated diffusion and use of information technology throughout the civil service, the National Computer Board launched the project "Government on Internet" in 1996.

The aim was to provide each and every ministry with a web page that will constitute a communication interface with the business community and the public at large where the latter would have information on the roles, functions, services and contact persons of the different governmental organisations. To date, all ministries have their respective website on the government web portal at click here.

Emphasis has initially been on publishing information, so the websites were static and had to be updated regularly. Recently, there has been a co-ordinated effort through the e-government task force to make the websites more interactive and more customer-focused.

As a first step in this direction, it has been decided that all forms for application for government services will be placed online in the first instance. The next step would be to allow online filling of forms and transactions.

In addition to these e government initiatives, Mauritius has eliminated any import duties on computer equipment and subsidises Internet bandwidth into the country. This is quite unique in a region that tends to overtax the ICT sector and stifle it under layers of bureaucracy.

One can only hope that this example will be emulated and we will soon see many governments in the region following Mauritius' lead.

Information sourced from Government of Mauritius web site.