Some of the Govt people, and the new chatwas, seem to be irritated by our criticism of some budget measures . There have been some accusations that many of us derive a “kick” from the clickbait of our social platform exerting a disproportionate and undeserved influence over shaping, or rather distorting, the national narrative.
L’express also takes it today in the Kronik KC Ranze “Quant aux réseaux sociaux, ils sont de plus en plus populaires, mais bien trop souvent occasions d’insinuations gratuites, d’opinions non étayées, d’impressions non avérées, et d’émotionalité pure..… Ce sont des lieux on l’on peut doctement déclarer «Je pense que…» sans avoir jamais réfléchi à la question que l’on va commenter.”
We want to show that in our posts we are neither trying to fan the fires or whipping up sentiments against the new regime. We are just not at odds with facts and rationality.
On the measures on Artificial Intelligence (AI) we had commented that we have still along way to go .…”It’s now that we are beginning to grasp the importance of AI, albeit a little belatedly. We have fallen behind in digitisation and AI compared to even African countries, and it will take us around 10 years to catch up.”
In an article in today’s L’express “Can Mauritius Build Its Own “Silicon Island”?” Fanishka Sookharee points out that the budget measures are too insignificant to position Mauritius at the forefront of the digital economy.
“With a population of about 1.2 million, the AI allocation amounts to just Rs 19 per resident—only 0.011 percent of the total government budget. By contrast, Singapore invests more than 50 times as much per resident in AI each year and has committed S$1 bn over the past 5 years. For Mauritius, the ambition is visible, but the resources are thinly spread.”
"India has put technology at the core of its national growth strategy, pledging about US $1.25 billion for the five-year IndiaAI Mission and another US $1.8 billion to expand Digital India. These support an ecosystem of more than 100,000 start-ups—now the world’s third largest—and industry estimates indicate that data and AI could add roughly US $450–500 billion, or close to 10 percent of GDP, by 2025. The government backs this with strong digital public services and targeted STEM education."
"Nigeria is Africa’s standout tech success. Lagos is ranked the world’s fastest-growing tech ecosystem and has seen its startup ecosystem value grow 11.6 times since 2017 and is home to five unicorns (companies valued at $1 billion or more): Interswitch, Flutterwave, Jumia, OPay, and Moniepoint. By 2024, Lagos had hosted over 2,000 tech startups and Nigerian startups attracted more than $400 million in investment that year only. Government support for broadband, digital skills, and fintech-friendly regulation has helped make Lagos a magnet for global investors and a model for rapid tech-driven growth across the continent"
Another of our criticisms was on the financial sector “ Like the blueprints for our financial sector, year after year, we have been presented with new blueprints which have turned out to be damp squids. We keep repeating and spreading our all-knowing incendiary rhetoric till one and all start believing it as an irrefutable theme of our distorted reality . Meanwhile, the reality is that Gift City is succeeding in pulling the rug from under our feet."
On the financial services sector, Faniska warns us that
“This ecosystem faces a significant threat from AI-driven automation. Many of the roles that support offshore and financial activities like call center agents, compliance analysts, KYC onboarding officers, document reviewers and back-office administrators are already being automated, and thus the demand for traditional administrative and back-office roles in Mauritius could decline sharply, putting thousands of Mauritian jobs at risk within the next five years. After all, the question becomes: why would they continue to base their operations here, relying on local staff, when technology can do the same work at a fraction of the cost”
She also draws our attention that on the talent side . “
….only 20% of tertiary students pursue STEM fields, contributing to an annual shortfall of about 5,000 IT professionals. The island has incubators like Turbine and La Plage Factory, and a handful of promising startups but the pipeline of true tech product companies is small. Most digital businesses focus on outsourcing or importing software, not building local intellectual property for export.
While Mauritius ranks 2nd in Africa and 59th globally in the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2024, successful startup exits and scale-ups remain rare, with 68% of entrepreneurs citing access to capital as their biggest hurdle. All these indicate that the island still faces major challenges in becoming an innovation hub.”
Criticism, dissent and public protests are the hallmarks of any vibrant democracy. Our New Govt and the new Chatwas should listen to these contrarian views which are not mere platitudes that serve as rhetorical shields, deflecting criticism, and masking the lack of meaningful progress.
In these posts, we challenge the status quo and we believe that our criticisms can spark new ideas and innovative solutions, push boundaries and lead to progress.
