Out of these funds, around Rs 46 million will be allotted to finance a training programme developed and managed together with the Human Resource Development Council. The aim is to enhance the skills of trainers in private and public institutions so that they work more effectively with SMEs to design and better deliver training programmes.

As regards grants opportunities for SME proposals, Rs 52 million have been provided for demand driven initiatives in the SME sector through a call for proposals which aims at fighting against unemployment and supporting job creation. The objectives are to strengthen business support services and enhance the quality and delivery of such services as well as enable small enterprises to meet the present and future business challenges. Each grant request can vary between Rs 420 000 and Rs 4 200 000.

Of the overall European Commission contribution of approximately Rs 540 million towards the DCP's Rs 640 million budget for Mauritius, 22 percent is aimed at supporting the SMEs. These funds directly support the Government's measures to fight unemployment through empowerment and capacity building of Mauritians while emphasising the potential and opportunities of local entrepreneurship.

It is recalled that the DCP, a joint undertaking by the European Commission and the Government of Mauritius, was launched in September 2005 and aims at alleviating poverty through the capacity building of Non State Actors(NSAs) and job creation through support to SME development.