ahmedabad india and mauritius have taken their bilateral relations a step further with the latter choosing to enhance its entrepreneurial capacity through entrepreneurship development institutes edi expertise jangbahadoor seetaram minister of business enterprise and cooperatives government of mauritius and jean maxy simonet permanent secretary of the ministry came to ahmedabad to sign a mou representing small and medium enterprises development authority smeda under the aegis of their ministry with edi the deal will ensure that the institute helps mauritius in developing its smes and msmes will lend its technical support to build strong cooperatives will set up clusters incubators and form a robust handicraft industry to sustain any external shock and to have a permanent strong sme and msme sector we need to develop our local market edi will help us become professionals it will teach us how to innovate said seetaram who also visited dr amrita patel chairman national dairy development board during his visit to the city the sme sector contributes to 40 percent of mauritius gdp and provides for 54 per cent of its employment in its budget of 201213 the country has allotted this sector access to finances to the tune of 3 million mauritian rupees over 3 years access to technology access to industrial power and access to markets we hold international fairs where our local handicrafts are sold and destination products aimed at tourism are promoted he added direct flight to mauritius on the anvil ahmedabad jangbahadoor seetaram minister of business enterprise and cooperatives government of mauritius met state tourism minister saurabh patel on friday to discuss sectors that can benefit from collaboration between gujarat and mauritius patel suggested direct flights between ahmedabad and mauritius given the high number of tourists from the city alone seetaram will be putting this issue forward once back in mauritius this could be a wonderful opportunity for our tourism industry he said