After tourism and finance, could AI be Mauritius’ next pillar?

As an entrepreneur who grew up in Mauritius, I have always been interested in how our economy evolves and in the sectors the country can build its growth on.

After my BSc in Economics, Finance and Banking, I started taking a close interest in artificial intelligence and in what was developing rapidly abroad. I could already see companies changing the way they worked, analysed information and automated certain processes.

When I created Island AI in 2024, my idea was fairly simple: these changes would also reach Mauritius, and our companies would need to learn how to use these technologies in their own context.

Since then, working directly with Mauritian companies has made me see the subject differently.

The more I observe their operations, the more I realise that Mauritius already has many things that are difficult to build: professionals with deep knowledge of finance, hospitality, trade, accounting, BPO and compliance.

That gradually led me to a broader question than the one that pushed me to create Island AI:

what if the opportunity for Mauritius went beyond our companies adopting AI? What if part of our next phase of growth could come from what we are able to create with it?

Why look for a new economic pillar?

Mauritius has already achieved several important economic transformations.

Sugar structured the economy for a long time. Textiles then added a new industrial and export capability. Tourism, financial services and later ICT/BPO created new sources of revenue.

These sectors remain important today.

But real GDP growth fell from 4.9% in 2024 to 3.2% in 2025. Statistics Mauritius expects around 3% in 2026, while the IMF now estimates 2026 growth at 2.8%. (statsmauritius.govmu.org)

At the same time, public debt is expected to remain close to 88% of GDP by the end of June 2026, and the current-account deficit reached 7.1% of GDP in 2025. (imf.org)

The issue is not that our current pillars have stopped creating value.

It is that their current trajectory is taking us towards an economy growing at around 3% a year, while Mauritius must simultaneously increase income, fund public needs, absorb demographic pressures and remain competitive with other economies.

To create more growth, we therefore need to continue developing existing sectors and add new sources of value.

That is exactly what Mauritius has done several times in its history.

The question is: where could the next one come from?

Building AI infrastructure is a first step

Mauritius has already started positioning itself for this new economy.

Mauritius Telecom operates, among others, a Tier IV data centre in Rose-Belle and a Tier III data centre in Rose-Hill. The Rose-Belle facility offers up to 3 MW of power and more than 400 rack spaces. (myt.mu)

The country is also developing an 83-arpent High-Tech Special Economic Zone at Côte d’Or, designed around areas including artificial intelligence, digital finance, advanced services and technology companies targeting African markets. (edbmauritius.org)

This is a good direction.

A country that wants to develop its digital economy needs connectivity, computing capacity, cloud infrastructure, reliability and an environment capable of hosting technology companies.

But for a small island like Mauritius, a strategy built mainly around physical infrastructure quickly meets a constraint: to keep growing, the infrastructure itself also has to keep growing.

More data-centre capacity means more servers, more cooling, more capital and, above all, more electricity.

Mauritius’ power system is already under pressure.

The CEB recorded an all-time peak demand of 567.9 MW on 5 February 2025. It also launched a Demand Response Program capable of mobilising up to 100 MW of reduced consumption from large commercial and industrial customers during constrained periods. (ceb.mu)

That does not reduce the value of data centres.

It means they should be one layer of the strategy, rather than its end goal.

For a small country with limited physical resources, one form of growth becomes particularly attractive: growth where revenue can rise much faster than the resources required to produce it.

Software developed in Mauritius can be used by ten companies, then a hundred, then a thousand, without requiring a new building for every new customer.

And this is where our existing expertise becomes especially important.

Infrastructure allows Mauritius to host part of the digital economy. Intellectual property allows us to own part of it.

Our new raw material may already exist

Mauritius already has a significant technology sector.

In 2024, ICT/BPO represented around 975 companies, 34,500 jobs and 5.6% of GDP. (edbmauritius.org)

In 2025, ICT service exports rose from Rs 7.937 billion to Rs 9.642 billion, an increase of 21.5% in one year. (statsmauritius.govmu.org)

But developers are only one part of the opportunity.

The other part lies in sectors Mauritius has been building for decades.

Financial services represent 13.4% of GDP, more than 20,000 direct jobs and around USD 131 billion in assets under management. (edbmauritius.org)

Thousands of professionals have accumulated highly specific knowledge in KYC, AML, fund administration, ownership structures, accounting, audit, reporting, risk management and compliance.

Our hotels have accumulated another kind of knowledge: pricing, revenue management, resort operations, food and beverage, and guest experience.

Our BPO companies understand multilingual customer service, back-office work and international operations.

Our import-export companies, banks and logistics operators understand the documents, controls and rules of international trade.

This expertise already creates value.

The next leap is to make it reusable.

When a professional masters a complex process, part of that expertise lies in the documents they consult, the rules they apply, the exceptions they recognise and the decisions they know how to make.

If part of that knowledge can be embedded in a software product, it can serve several companies across several countries.

This is where artificial intelligence changes the equation.

Today’s tools can work with text, documents, emails, tables and large quantities of information that were previously difficult to process automatically.

AI then becomes a way to turn more Mauritian know-how into exportable intellectual property.

Several small countries have already shown how local expertise can become an international industry.

Israel: turning technical skills into global companies

Israel first developed an exceptional concentration of technology skills.

But engineers and technology alone were not enough.

By the 1990s, Israel already had interesting innovations, including in its universities, but struggled to turn them into companies capable of reaching markets.

The government then launched Yozma in 1993.

It initially committed USD 100 million and used the capital to create ten private funds bringing together Israeli investors, foreign venture-capital firms and local financial institutions. The objective was not only to bring money, but also to import experience, networks and the ability to build international technology companies. (oecd.org)

The mechanism was therefore:

skills → entrepreneurs → international capital → products → exports.

By the early 2000s, Israel’s venture-capital market had become largely private-sector driven. (oecd.org)

This model helped build a technology economy that is disproportionate to the size of the country.

What Mauritius can learn from Israel

The interesting point is not to reproduce Israeli cybersecurity.

It is to understand that existing capabilities can become an industry when the country builds the right financing, commercialisation and international-market mechanisms around them.

For Mauritius, that expertise could come from finance, BPO, hospitality or international trade.

Finland: one industry can create the next

Finland offers another model.

For years, Nokia concentrated developers, engineers and specialists in telecommunications and mobile software around it.

That concentration of skills later fed other industries.

Gaming is one of them.

Business Finland explicitly identifies Nokia’s historical presence as one of the factors that helped the development of Finnish mobile gaming. (businessfinland.fi)

The state then used Tekes, now Business Finland, to share part of the risk involved in developing new companies.

The Skene programme aimed, among other things, to professionalise gaming and create a Finnish cluster able to succeed in international markets. (businessfinland.fi)

Rovio, Remedy and Supercell are among the companies that emerged from this ecosystem.

In 2024, Finland had around 270 game studios, generating EUR 2.85 billion in revenue with only about 4,300 employees. (neogames.fi)

The figure becomes even more interesting when we look at public finances.

Business Finland reports that Supercell, its employees and the Kahoon 3 fund paid more than EUR 2 billion in taxes in Finland between 2012 and 2018. (businessfinland.fi)

A few thousand people can therefore generate billions in revenue when what they produce can be sold globally.

What Mauritius can learn from Finland

An existing industry can become the school for the next one.

The skills being accumulated today in our banks, hotels, management companies and BPO firms can tomorrow help build products that go beyond those companies themselves.

Estonia: turning a small market into a laboratory

When Estonia regained independence in 1991, it had to rebuild much of its infrastructure with limited resources.

It chose very early to bet on digital technology.

In 1996, the government launched Tiger Leap.

Schools received computers and internet connections. Teachers were trained. Students developed digital skills. Within a few years, the whole education system became a testing ground for technological transformation. (oecd.org)

This logic then moved beyond education.

Digital identity, online public services, digital taxation and other infrastructure gradually turned the state itself into a user and testing ground for technology.

The OECD now considers Estonia’s public sector an early adopter and important testbed for AI systems. (oecd.org)

ICT today represents around 8.5% to 9% of the country’s value added, one of the highest shares in the OECD. (oecd.org)

In 2025, Estonia exported EUR 13.8 billion in services and recorded a services surplus of EUR 3.2 billion. (stat.ee)

What Mauritius can learn from Estonia

A small domestic market can serve as a first laboratory.

The government, banks, hotels and large Mauritian companies can become the first customers of locally developed technologies.

Solutions that work here can then go and find customers elsewhere.

Singapore: continuously moving up the value chain

Singapore offers yet another path.

In the 1960s, the country began with relatively simple, labour-intensive industries.

Then it steadily moved upmarket.

Textiles.

Electronics.

Precision engineering.

Petrochemicals.

Semiconductors.

Biotechnology.

Research and development.

The country attracted multinationals, developed the required skills around them, built infrastructure and continued shifting its economy towards higher-value activities.

Today, Singapore accounts for around one tenth of global chip production and one fifth of global semiconductor-equipment production. (edb.gov.sg)

What Mauritius can learn from Singapore

For a small economy, the choice of sectors matters enormously.

Resources do not allow fifty new clusters to be built at the same time.

The country needs to identify a few areas where existing skills give it a realistic chance of becoming very good.

Ireland: building clusters around foreign investment

Ireland followed another approach.

The IDA was created as early as 1949 to stimulate export-oriented businesses.

In 1958, the first Programme for Economic Expansion began opening the economy, encouraging foreign investment and placing exports at the centre of national strategy. (idaireland.com)

Ireland then gradually attracted multinationals into selected sectors: pharmaceuticals, medical devices and technology.

These companies brought capital, but also processes, skills, networks and suppliers.

In 2025, Ireland exported EUR 138.6 billion in medical and pharmaceutical products, representing 53.2% of all its goods exports. (cso.ie)

What Mauritius can learn from Ireland

Attracting a foreign company becomes much more valuable when we look beyond the number of jobs it creates immediately.

The real question becomes:

what skills will that company leave in the country, which local suppliers will grow around it, and which Mauritian companies might one day emerge from that ecosystem?

Five countries, five methods, one common principle

Israel used venture capital to turn technology skills into companies.

Finland turned the skills from an older industry into a new one.

Estonia used its own market and government as a digital laboratory.

Singapore continuously shifted its economy towards higher-value sectors.

Ireland used foreign investment to build export clusters.

The models are different.

But their common principle is simple:

new economic pillars were built from existing capabilities, then strengthened by capital, training, infrastructure, first customers and access to international markets.

That is the logic Mauritius can adapt.

What could a vertical AI company built in Mauritius look like?

Take one example: financial compliance.

A Mauritian management company has to collect client documents, identify beneficial owners, understand ownership structures, perform sanctions and PEP checks, verify certain information and prepare a file for approval.

A large part of the value today comes from professionals who know:

which document to ask for, which inconsistency to detect, which situation requires further investigation and when a case must be escalated.

A Mauritian technology company could work with several industry players to gradually capture part of that expertise.

The software could read documents, extract information, reconstruct structures, prepare certain checks and highlight cases that need more attention.

The first Mauritian companies become the learning ground.

When the same product starts solving a problem for several firms, it gradually becomes standardisable.

A fourth company can use it.

Then a tenth.

Then a hundredth located in another country.

Know-how accumulated in Mauritius then becomes a software asset that Mauritius can sell many times.

The same logic can apply to hospitality, BPO, audit or international trade.

Why is this model particularly interesting for Mauritius?

Mauritius is a small country.

We have limited land.

A limited workforce.

Energy infrastructure that still needs to be expanded.

And a limited domestic market.

In a traditional economy, these constraints quickly become limits to growth.

A factory that wants to produce twice as much generally has to buy more machines, use more raw materials and increase physical capacity.

A hotel that wants to double its number of rooms has to build.

A software product works differently.

Once developed, it can be distributed to many more customers without physical resources increasing in the same proportions.

That is what makes intellectual property particularly interesting for small economies.

How could this actually generate more income for Mauritius?

In 2025, Mauritius imported around Rs 319 billion in goods and exported around Rs 108 billion.

The goods trade deficit therefore reached Rs 211.3 billion. (statsmauritius.govmu.org)

A technology product sold abroad creates a different source of income: a service export.

When that intellectual property belongs to a Mauritian company, several layers of value can remain in the economy.

Developers and domain experts receive salaries.

The company generates profits.

It can attract foreign investors.

It hires more people.

Employees and shareholders spend and reinvest part of their income.

The state collects taxes on a larger economy.

That is exactly what makes the Supercell example interesting.

What about public debt?

Building a technology industry does not directly repay public debt.

The debt trajectory also depends on government spending, revenue, deficits and fiscal policy.

The IMF is therefore calling on Mauritius to pursue fiscal consolidation at the same time as reforms that can raise productivity and private investment. (imf.org)

But developing new sectors acts on the other side of the problem:

the size of the economy that finances that debt.

More GDP.

More salaries.

More profits.

More exports.

More potential tax revenue.

Mauritius therefore has to work on both dimensions: manage public finances better and create more wealth to broaden the base that finances them.

What should Mauritius actually do?

The international examples suggest several directions.

The first is to choose a few very specific areas where Mauritius already has a strong combination of technology and domain expertise.

Finance.

Hospitality.

BPO.

International trade.

Audit and professional services.

Then we need to go down to the level of real problems.

“Doing AI for finance” is not a strategy.

“Reducing the work needed to prepare and verify a complex KYC file” is already a problem around which a company can build a product.

Large Mauritian companies and institutions can serve as the first development grounds.

Public capital can help share some early risks alongside the private sector.

Multinationals based in Mauritius can become sources of skills and gateways to international markets.

And technology companies should be encouraged to move from a project for one client to a product that can be sold to a hundred clients.

The measure of success then becomes much more concrete:

how much revenue from foreign customers is generated each year by technologies and intellectual property developed in Mauritius?

The next pillar may start with what we already have

Mauritius already has developers.

Finance professionals.

Tourism experts.

BPO teams.

Trade and logistics specialists.

International companies.

Digital infrastructure.

So the challenge is not only to use more artificial intelligence.

It is to understand what Mauritius can build with it.

Israel shows how skills can become international companies.

Finland shows how one industry can provide the skills needed for the next.

Estonia shows how a small market can become a laboratory.

Singapore shows the importance of choosing a few sectors and continuing to move up the value chain.

Ireland shows how international investment can build export clusters.

Mauritius can adapt part of each of these approaches to its own strengths.

Take what our professionals already know how to do.

Turn more of that expertise into products.

Develop and retain more intellectual property in Mauritius.

Then sell those products to the rest of the world.

That may be how artificial intelligence becomes much more than a productivity tool for our companies.

It can become one of the ways Mauritius builds its next economic pillar.