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Smart City Scheme Mauritius

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What is the Vision and key Objective of Smart City Scheme Mauritius?

Smart city projects other than technopole should also ensure:

For companies to be eligible to obtain SCS licenses they must:

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The smart city concept has different illustrations globally, but for Mauritius, it’s about investing in a scheme that natures financial, economic, and political advancements.

The Board of Investment launched the Smart City Scheme in 2015 (Amended October 2020) together with the Mauritian government.
8 projects were approved at the time but there are now over ten license holders including:

What is the Vision and key Objective of Smart City Scheme Mauritius?

The Smart City Scheme envisions creating an economic development program that makes Mauritius fully-fledged finance and international business hub. The program houses the ideal housing, living, and play conditions merged with modern urban planning and digital solutions. Once these projects come into completion, Mauritius will be listed among global smart countries.

Such projects raise a country’s status to a center of technology, knowledge, and economic development. It also contributes to better economic cycles and higher life quality.

To achieve this, the main guidelines include:

Development of the smart cities within the country, which will incorporate business centers, offices, residential and entertainment centers. All should work together while focusing on life quality, sustainability, innovation, and efficiency.
SCS projects will have a well-coordinated and economic use of the land for development.
The projects will create an environmentally friendly living, working, and play space while maximizing the use of own resources including important utilities. Modern transportation and other state-of-the-art connecting resources will be used to provide movement efficiency and reduce congestion.
Promoting targeted economic models will increase foreign investments and trade thus contribute to rapid economic growth. This will also strengthen different service and industry bases to diversify the economy.

What are the SCS Eligibility Criteria?

Aside from the technopol project, all smart city projects should follow these four main guidelines:

Should be developed on at least a 50 arpents or 21.105 hectares piece of land.
Must stick to the live, work, and play concept of the SCS and provide a work and housing opportunity within the location for most of the residents.
Should aim to create an urban environment with pedestrian orientations for physical and functional integration. The land should provide a development mix use of land including commercial, residential, and leisure purposes. This means incorporating housing, light industrial, office, retail, hotel, and public entertainment.
At least 25% of the established properties should be available to Mauritian citizens or Mauritian Diaspora registered members under the Diaspora Scheme by the Mauritian Board of Investment.

Smart city projects other than technopole should also ensure:

The use of technological practices and products that lead to reduced operational costs such as fewer utility costs and reduced energy consumption.
It includes business facilities plus mandatory clusters for innovation.
They consider middle-class earners by providing affordable housing.
They offer daily management services
The provision of leisure amenities and civic centers
They provide residential units, but not allocated more than 50% of the land under construction.
The provision of high-quality spaces to the public for social engagements to encourage the build of community. However, the spaces are not limited to cycle routes, pedestrian precincts, open plazas, and gardens
As far as it is within their capacity, the projects should be able to:
- Regulate and manage their wastage systems
- Produce water needs
- Use eco-friendly solutions to generate energy-efficient solutions

For companies to be eligible to obtain SCS licenses they must:

Be responsible for ensuring all smart city components are adhered to at all times
Remember they are answerable to the Economic Development Board to implement the licensed project on time
Transform acquired bare land to service land then put up the serviced land for sale.
Be provided with both fiscal and non-fiscal incentive packages
Are allowed to sell not more than 75% of the units to non-residents