Mauritius: The role of good governance in ensuring that the appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent mishaps in the organisation while improving its resilience was underpinned by the Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, Mahen Kumar Seeruttun, this morning, as he launched a conference on the theme ‘Creating resilience through governance’ organised by the ICSA Mauritius Branch, at the Hennessy Park Hotel in Ebène.
On the same occasion, the official rebranding of the local branch name to ‘The Chartered Governance Institute, Mauritius Branch’ was made in the presence of Minister Seeruttun, the President of the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland, Victoria Penrice, and the President of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (Mauritius Branch), Roodesh Muttylall.
In his address, the Minister highlighted that the Chartered Governance Institute (CGI) had embodied the home of good governance for 130 years and expressed conviction that it will continue to play a pivotal role for the years to come.
He stated that the work that the CGI is undertaking is of utmost importance, as it represents the interest of company secretaries whose roles have expanded to navigate more complex board and compliance arrangements and also embraces the needs of practitioners in other sectors, such as health, sport, education, and charities that regularly face new regulations to keep up to date in their field.
The Minister stressed that a well-developed corporate governance framework plays a major role in delivering the resilience, which he emphasised, is an important organisational quality determining the rates of success in an increasingly interconnected world, for it is the key to long-term prosperity and enables quick and effective response to internal and external pressures.
He added that we need more professionals like secretaries and administrators from CGI to drive the governance agenda for companies.
According to Seeruttun, offering professional development opportunities in the field of governance not only allows organisations to operate most cost-effectively and efficiently but also fosters loyalty and confidence among staff, driving them to overcome challenges and achieve individual and company-wide goals.
On that score, he recalled that the Mauritius International Financial Centre boasts more than three decades of track record in cross-border investment and finance and offers an unparalleled, well-regulated, transparent platform.
He informed that our International Financial Centre is home to international banks, legal firms, corporate services, investment funds and private equity funds, as an internationally recognised jurisdiction of repute.
It needs to be adequately manned to cater for the growing business and for the job to be done correctly, he underlined that our jurisdiction is encouraging more students to study professional qualifications.
The Minister further observed that corporate governance and artificial intelligence are closely linked, as AI technologies are increasingly being integrated into businesses, for which he said an adequate governance structure is the solution to ensuring there is ethical use of these technologies.
Moreover, Minister Seeruttun affirmed that the Mauritius International Financial Centre has a robust and strong AML/CFT framework and assured that his Ministry will always work towards maintaining the good reputation of the jurisdiction.