In his personal travelogue, Following the Equator, Mark Twain made the following observation about the tiny nation of Mauritius: "You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first, and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius."

Maybe so, but how does this island paradise stack up against other countries in attracting outsourcing business to its shores? The answer seems to be, pretty well. It currently ranks 25th on AT Kearney's Global Services Location Index (GSLI). And a KPMG report earlier this year outlined some of the generous financial incentives offered by the government of Mauritius to encourage foreign IT/BPO companies to the country. These include corporate tax exemption (either 0% in the first year and 15% thereafter, or 5% in perpetuity); zero customs duty on ICT equipment; fifty per cent tax relief on personal income tax for foreign IT specialists; and refunds of up to 75 per cent of training costs.

Last week, I exchanged emails with the Honourable Mohammed Asraf Ally Dulull, the Mauritian Minister of Information and Communication Technology, to find out a little more about how the government in Mauritius is working to promote the country as an outsourcing/offshoring destination.

Q. How developed is the outsourcing industry in Mauritius at this point and what targets have been set?

A. Mauritius welcomed its first outsourcing operator, a call centre, in 1995. Fourteen years later, there are over 260 companies operating in this field, employing around 11,000 people. It is interesting to note that only four to five years ago, the number of people employed was just 3,500. There has been a significant increase in the level of employment in the outsourcing industry. At present, this contributes 4% of GDP (excluding telecommunications). The ICT and IT-Enabled industry is expected to employ 25, 000 people in 2013, contributing to around 12% of GDP, at par with the financial services sector.

Q. And what international companies are already being served by Mauritius-based outsourcers?

A. Service providers in Mauritius are successfully delivering a wide-array of services to offshore clients, which include Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies from the financial services sector, as well as airlines, hotel chains and telecom companies. The BPO landscape is characterised by some global suppliers that include Accenture, Ceridian, Intelenet, Infosys, and offshore captives such as Deutsche Bank, DHL, Huawei, Orange Business Services and TNT Document Services, among others.

Q. What challenges do you face - economically, politically, culturally?

A. The main challenge faced by Mauritius is in terms of its limited size and people. The Mauritian population consists of 1.2 million people. However, the limited labour is highly qualified and skilled. The government has also been encouraging more training initiatives and specific incentives are also given to companies to engage in training programs to keep pace with technology and also with market demand. Furthermore, a project to set up an ICT Academy in Mauritius is also in the pipeline, which would make available a larger number of qualified people to better serve the global outsourcing market.

Q. And what other actions is the government taking to ensure Mauritius can offer a favourable environment for outsourcing?

A. The government has brought in considerable reforms in order to open up the economy to foreigners. This includes improved regulatory framework for the obtention of work permits and occupation permits and establishment of foreign legal firms in Mauritius, amongst others. For instance, to facilitate the technological transfer for expert coming from other part of the world, the government has put a fast-track system for work permit for qualified IT personnel. All this will also help in the transfer of knowledge and skills.

In a few weeks' time, Mr Dulull will be opening the Mauritius International Outsourcing Forum in the country's capital city, Port Louis. While I was kindly invited to attend, family commitments have forced me to decline, but I hope very much to have another opportunity to visit in future.