| Scan-ICT
phase II kicks off in Mauritius
 Over
30 participants drawn from government, private sector and
civil society organizations attended the launch of Scan-ICT
Phase II at a workshop organized by the Economic Commission
for Africa (ECA) on 23 January 2006 in Port Louis, Mauritius.
Scan-ICT
is a collaborative initiative coordinated by ECA with support
from partners to support build Africa’s capacity to
collect and manage the kind of information and data that supports
ICT growth and investment and to measure its impact on society
and economy.
Participants
kick-started the Mauritius Scan-ICT project with a workshop,
whereby participants discussed the indicators, methodology
for data collection in the various socio-economic sectors
of Mauritius as well as how to involve various stakeholders
in the process.
In his
opening remarks, Honourable Etienne Sinatambou, Minister of
Information Technology and Telecommunications said, “The
ICT sector is not only expected to evolve as the fifth pillar
of growth but will also revamp traditional sectors. He added
that Mauritius is according high priority to the development
of the ICT sector to transform the country into a Cyber Island.
“Measuring
the Information Society, in particular the use and impact
of ICTs, is a precondition for formulating and assessing ICT
policies and strategies and monitoring the digital divide”,
said Mr. Sinatambou.
Mr.
Makane Faye, Regional Advisor, Development Information Services
Division (DISD), reaffirmed ECA’s commitment “towards
collaborating with the Government and people of Mauritius
in attaining their development objectives through the development,
deployment and effective use of ICTs”.
 Mr.
Harish Bundhoo, Director of the Central Statistics Office
(CSO) highlighted the support that can be provided by the
CSO in the implementation of Scan-ICT in Mauritius. He pointed
out that ICT indicators have been collected from both households
and establishments since 2002 and are being integrated in
the annual Continuous Household Surveys of the country.
“However,
the gap between the statistics that are available, and those
that are needed, particularly with reference to Value Added
and Investment, is quite big and we need to bridge that gap.”
He said.
The
workshop resulted in a number of outcomes, including the formation
of a national Task Force to lead the process and identification
of priority themes and forty-six ICT indicators for Mauritius.
In addition, considering the high level of ICT penetration
and usage in Mauritius, it was recommended that focus and
in-depth work is needed to identify, develop, and use ICT
indicators, which can measure the economic impact such as
share on GDP.
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