The Establishment of Smart Cities in Mauritius: Requirements, Challenges and Opportunities

54% of the world's population live in cities nowadays and this figure is expected to reach some 66% by 2050 as 60 million people are added to the cities every year. With such phenomenon, it will become a major challenge in the future to provide quality services to the residents due to resource constraints. In its 2015 budget, the government of Mauritius proposed "13 mega projects" including 8 smart cities and 5 techno-parks as a means to boost the economy and drive the competiveness of Mauritius in both the regional and international arena. The government is indeed promoting smart cities in terms of national benefits: promoting the business sector, improving of living standards of its citizens, as well as making a judicious use of resources. However Mauritius does not need to start this venture from scratch. There are examples of smart cities around the world where many smart ideas have been implemented from which the country can learn and adapt. In this paper we will look at essential elements that form a smart city and how they have been implemented in existing smart cities and furthermore how can we use these ideas to build smart cities in Mauritius, or in other countries ready to make the leap.