The Government of Mauritius aims at positioning Mauritius as a regional sports hub by developing the country into a vibrant and growing sport economy that would have spillover effects on the services sector including the tourism industry.
In our endeavour to promote sports in Mauritius, the following has been realised:
- The National Sports and Physical Activity Policy defines key transformative actions that Mauritius must focus on over the next decade;
- An International Football Academy Soccer School was set up by the Liverpool Football Club and Athletics Grounds Limited from the UK at Côte D’Or;
- The Sports Economic Commission was established to develop and implement a clear roadmap for the integration of sports business as new economic pillar in Mauritius.
The role of the Sports Economic Commission includes, inter-alia, the following:
- promote Mauritius as an international centre for the hosting of international multi-disciplinary sports events;
- facilitate and promote the setting up of Mauritius Sportstech Incubators and start-ups;
- regulate, facilitate and issue approval to existing and new sports infrastructure development under the PPP model;
- facilitate the development of track and trail under the sponsorship and partnership of the private sector to promote Sports Tourism;
- develop a new and competitive business model for sports disciplines.
Sports and physical activities have significant potential to drive social and economic returns for the country. There is coordinated effort to develop a ‘sports economy’ as an emerging sector to make it a future strong economic pillar with the following main objectives:
- Increase sports contribution to GDP from 1.2 to over 2% over the next 5 years
- Developing new niche for the sports tourism market
- Foster Public-Private Partnerships
- Attract international promoters for organisation of high-profile sports events in Mauritius
- Address youth unemployment and improve standards of living
- Drive sustainable innovation through Sportstech Incubators
