‘Courtesy Call’

Dr Lesley Emanuel, Higher Education Specialist, paid a courtesy call upon me yesterday. Dr Lesley Emanuel is a corporate trainer, editor and writer, and her research interests include mentoring and coaching, in-service learning, Work Based Learning and Higher Education, the relationships between Higher Education and work, changing forms of knowledge, and quality assurance(of Work Based Learning).

‘INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT’

 

 

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the University of Mauritius and the World Trade Organisation for the organisation of this Second Edition of the International Conference on International Trade and Investment. This meeting which will group experts from various fields and will be an opportunity to get acquainted with the latest thinking in international trade, investment, aid, regional integration, trade competitiveness, climate change, labour market issues and poverty. My Ministry aims at making Mauritius a knowledge society and position the country as a Knowledge Hub, and a Centre of Higher Learning and Excellence to serve both local and regional needs. I am convinced that today’s presentations and discussions will further contribute to the existing knowledge on international trade and investment and will prove immensely useful not only to academics but also to policy makers, practitioners and the wider public. I would like to thank all participants for the interest and enthusiasm they have shown by coming from all the corners of the world to participate in this international Conference in Mauritius. I wish them all a very fruitful conference.

‘The shortest distance between two people is a smile’

‘UNIVERSIADE 2012’

 

 

 

 

Last year I promised to make the inter university sports competition - Universiade an annual event. We have kept our promise. We are all gathered for the official opening of Universiade 2012. My Ministry decided to start this inter-university sports competition because we believe that the campus should be a vibrant environment with opportunities for academic learning as well as development of the personality, building team spirit and engaging in healthy leisure. We all know how sport is important for health and education. I would like to congratulate all the students – about 1800 and the 21 institutions who are participating. I have a special word of encouragement for the foreign students. I am also very pleased to note the participation of a larger number of girls in the sports activities. We would like our tertiary education institutions to develop a network of sports activities and encouraged their students to participate in these activities. They should also have the opportunity to participate in international and regional sports events in the future. Once this permanent structure is in place we should also aim at establishing affiliation with other International University Sports Federation, which organizes similar university championships. I wish to extend my thanks to all the members of the organising team, the Sports Federations and in particular the Ministry of Youth and Sports for their invaluable collaboration.

‘Talk on Getting Started with Medical Research by PROF. URMILA THATTE ‘

 

I thank the Mauritius Research Council for organising this event with the participation of Prof Thatte, eminent scientist and researcher from India.  She is a well known figure in the medical world in India and serves in various capacities, with great experience in research. Medical and biomedical research brings significant benefits to any national health programme. Given its cross-cutting and multi-disciplinary nature, health system research must more fundamentally try to ultimately solve practical and relevant problems in health care delivery and to improve the health status of the individual as well as that of the population. This talk on medical research is therefore very relevant to the current Mauritian context as we have to deal with a number of non-communicable diseases including diabetes, cardio vascular problems, cancer, tobacco and alcohol related diseases and mental illness. We are pleased that Dr Thatte is here to give us more guidance and advice on medical research and how to encourage our young people to engage in such research. I wish them all the best for their future research.