Lord Jeffrey Mountevans: “The City of London is very interested in the Smart Cities’ concept”

During his visit to Mauritius, Lord Jeffrey Mountevans gave an interview to Business Magazine. He focuses on how the City of London can participate in the future development of the country.

BUSINESSMAG. What is the purpose of your visit to Mauritius ?

I am at the end of an interesting visit to Africa. Mauritius is the last country that I am coming to. The Lord Mayor’s job is to be ambassador for financial and professional business services from the City of London and the UK. I have been here meeting ministers and business people, but also the President of Mauritius. We have been discussing prospects related to business and how we can do more businesses together in financial services. I have met some banks, the Mauritius Ports Authority (MPA) and people from the Mauritian financial sector.

BUSINESSMAG. How do you evaluate the financial development of Mauritius?

What is clear is that there is a great ambition for Mauritius to move up its financial sector to another level. I think Britain can play a part in this, in many ways and, particularly in ETQ (Education, Training and Qualifications).

BUSINESSMAG. London is a financial centre of good repute while Mauritius is positioning itself as a gateway to Africa. How can Mauritius benefit from the expertise of the City of London?

We are located next to big markets and, in our case, reckless to Europe. We are in the EU. Mauritius is very close to Africa. I think London can serve as an example to the historical development and the width of the financial centre. We are active in various sectors. We have a great pool of talent expertise which is available for businesses here in Mauritius. And as I mentioned earlier, the obvious area where we can bring our expertise is in the Education, Training and Qualifications.

For example, there are some financial training institutions in Mauritius as the IFS International, which particularly train bankers. During my visit to Mauritius, I was invited to participate in the opening of CISI (Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment), a professional training organization, particularly for executives in the financial sector.

BUSINESSMAG. Has the London financial centre been impacted by the global slowdown?

We were initially but in actual fact, employment numbers have been recovered. They have been growing very strongly. So it did have an impact but we worked through it. The whole world has been impacted by the slowdown in China. We also have to look at what is happening in China. They just contributed massive infrastructure and industrial development and they are now moving more towards a service-based economy as the type Mauritius has or even the UK has.

BUSINESSMAG. What are the main challenges facing London-based companies?

Because of our success, the cost of housing has become very high. And that is worrying as our young people really struggle to find the money to buy houses. But we have a whole number of successful centres in UK specializing in different aspects of financial services and I think this will benefit them and it will be very beneficial for the country. As London is great and reputed as many cities, our transport is an area which we are constantly trying to improve. In two years’ time, we will get Europe’s biggest underground project of the present time and that will increase capacity enormously. Infrastructure in London is definitely an area where we continuously seek improvements.

BUSINESSMAG. What are your views on the Brexit?

Personally, I am in favour of the UK remaining inside of the EU. Most importantly, most of our major stakeholders are keen to stay in. I was delighted when travelling that the Scenic Comity of the Corporation of the City of London – the local government structure – is in favour of remaining in the EU as well.

BUSINESSMAG. Mauritius is looking to set up several Smart Cities. What can we learn from the City of London?

The City of London is very interested in the Smart Cities’ concept. And it is something that we are looking at and in the IT aspect, we have a very active participation. There is an excellent firm which concentrates in giving a lot of advices to the Government, called Broadway Malia. I have no-ted that Mauritius has numerous projects under development now. This is a way forward as we know that cities are growing strongly across the world. There will be lot of good works in developing Smart Cities. In London, we do look at all of these things; things to improve infrastructure. We even have programs, for example, to encourage people to cycle to work and to take more exercising balanced life. The City of London is actually a health authority itself. We give advices both to employees and businesses, who would like to hear from us about a balanced and healthy life. There are many aspects in this concept which we are looking at.