Mauritius was surely born under a lucky star. After success in its family planning scheme to check demographic explosion as early as the 1960s; after its highly successful post-independence industrialisation coupled with the development of a world-class tourist industry, the country is now poised to go successfully through its cyber island dream. Doubts and anxiety that surged around the island?s ability to attract foreign information-technology enabled services (ITES) companies in the Ebène cyber tower is being wiped out.

The Business Parks of Mauritius Ltd (BPML) and the Board of Investment (BOI) have of late learned an important lesson: the island can strike it lucky if it is offered to French companies as a small niche country providing French as a specific language capability. Mauritius has no strong contender in this type of ITES market and is already more attractive than Morocco or Tunisia as far as price and infrastructure are concerned. As far back as 2002, Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor of the Indian giant, Infosys Technologies Limited, confessed to the Indian press that Mauritius could emerge as a small niche country for French.

<B>Bilingual niche</B>

But perhaps the Mauritian authorities committed a big blunder by wooing Indian companies, by projecting the island as a bilingual niche to capture Europe and Africa?s French clientele. It was putting the cart before the horse. Indian companies have not yet tapped the French market and French companies, who have tried the Indian experience, have met with a bitter disappointment.

?I know of only two French outsourcing companies that have tried to delocalise operations to India. They have closed down their Indian offices and returned to France in utter disappointment,? says Jean Suzanne of Infinity France BPO, whose company has just rented a whole floor at Ebene cyber tower. The latter is already operating a call centre and is now aiming at software development with the help of some French engineers.

Jean Suzanne says that French outsourcing companies have a hard task convincing their clients that they will have the same high quality service from Mauritius. The island, known in France only as an upmarket tourist destination, has yet to make a name as a high-tech island.

However, things may be changing faster than expected. Euro CRM, Astek and a third French outsourcing company have shown a keen interest in the cyber tower. Astek, which employs 1,300 software engineers in France and Great Britain, may start operations in the cyber tower as early as next month. Mauritius will soon earn its reputation of as a high-tech island with competitive costs.

But the island has still to prove that it can provide unlimited talented manpower. At Infinity France, it is believed that the island will have its critical mass of IT engineers within six years. The limited manpower will presently have to be compensated by imported engineers. With the help and training provided by French outsourcing companies, it will nevertheless have the resources to fill the cyber tower very quickly before extending business to the cyber city. ?It is good that you have started with the idea of a cyber city before moving to a cyber Island. You will succeed as you have succeeded in the tourist sector,? says Jean Suzanne.

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