Introduction

The IT/BPO global sourcing market size is currently estimated between USD 89bn and 93bn with IT and BPO market shares averaging 40 and 60 percent respectively. The contribution of the IT/BPO sector to the Mauritian economy is expected to grow to some 8% in 2011 with the direct employment in the sector amounting to 25,000. For the medium term, Mauritius targets a 5 percent market capture of the global IT/BPO sourcing market.

Mauritius aims at achieving this objective by fully leveraging on its competitive advantages and through continuous enhancement of its IT/BPO ecosystem.

In addition to its connectivity to the SAFE/SAT 3 international submarine fibre optic cable, Mauritius would be connected to EASSy and LION submarine cables by end of 2010 and beginning of 2011 respectively resulting in an additional capacity of 10 Gbps as well as achieving full redundancy.

To sustain development in the IT/BPO sector, the country is building on existing Infrastructure such as the Ebene Cyber City and the Informatics parks as well as investing in the creation of state of the art IT/BPO poles island wide namely: The Rose Belle Business Park and the forthcoming Eco Park will be called upon to be enable data centre infrastructure projects. 4 new locations have been identified for IT/BPO services delivery.

Mauritius’s IT/BPO strategy also consists of moving towards high value added knowledge intensive niche market in the sector by focusing on the potential of its professional pool from other economic sectors where it commands expertise such as the financial sector, the hospitality and real estate sectors. Additionally the creation of an ICT academy will cater for training needs of the workforce for international standard service delivery in the IT/BPO sector. The ICT space will be characterized by the delivery of complex services with higher value and higher margins. Besides the new high end BPO verticals identified, new segments such as online gaming and online media will be explored.