GS1(MAURITIUS) LTD and SME Mauritius Ltd announce an extension to their collaboration

In celebration of its year-long Silver Jubilee, GS1 Mauritius pursues its close collaboration with the Government to increase the adoption and implementation of GS1 Barcodes, to further contribute to the economic development of Mauritius and Rodrigues.

In this context, GS1(MAURITIUS) LTD and SME Mauritius Ltd today announced an extension to their previous collaboration to also support Rodriguan MSMEs by providing them financial assistance to acquire GS1 Barcodes to access new markets.

Today, it is hard to imagine life without barcodes. Any operator including MSMEs willing to expand the distribution of their products to supermarkets should barcode their products. Barcodes are those symbols that are unique product identifiers and can be scanned electronically using laser or camera-based systems.

The GS1 Barcodes allocated by GS1(MAURITIUS) LTD are unique worldwide. By acquiring GS1 Barcodes under this scheme, Rodriguan MSMEs will not only upgrade their products and gain easier access to new markets, but they will reap numerous benefits.

With GS1 Barcodes, MSMEs will gain efficiency whilst enjoying lower costs through inventory management and will be able to export without any modification since GS1 Barcodes are internationally recognised standards. Thes GS1 Barcodes and standards not only enable implementing product traceability solutions, but their uniqueness further enables the detection of counterfeited products, thus contributing tremendously to gaining consumer confidence.

By adopting GS1 Barcodes and standards, MSMEs will further gain international visibility through GS1 GEPIR and GS1 Cloud. GS1 GEPIR (Global Electronic Party Information Registry) is a unique, internet-based service that gives anyone access to basic contact information for companies that are members of GS1 whilst GS1 Cloud is the largest source of trusted product information in the world.

GS1(MAURITIUS) LTD firmly believes that nurturing the entrepreneurship culture within Mauritius and Rodrigues is crucial and MSMEs, whether in Mauritius or Rodrigues, must be well equipped to compete and operate in the economy of the future.

Recognising the need to enable MSMEs to acquire GS1 Barcodes; under this scheme, SME Mauritius Ltd will finance 100% of the Registration fees and Training Fees for eligible MSMEs.

With the signature of this MoU, both organisations are confident that MSMEs will largely benefit since the collaboration goes beyond acquiring GS1 Barcodes to access markets easier. GS1(MAURITIUS) LTD is also committed to provide training to ensure that the MSMEs acquire working knowledge to implement their barcodes correctly and to avoid any possible retailer rejection of their products. Furthermore, the collaboration includes access to technical support, a database to manage their barcodes and free technical documents. MSMEs will also get a Membership Certificate, the proof that they are the unique authorised licensee of the GS1 Barcodes.

This is the second collaboration between GS1(MAURITIUS) LTD and SME Mauritius Ltd, after the MoU signed in March 2018 for Mauritian MSMEs to acquire GS1 Barcodes; and it is GS1(MAURITIUS) LTD’s third collaboration with the government to provide more support to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to acquire GS1 barcodes and standards. In fact, GS1(MAURITIUS) LTD has recently signed an MoU with Small Farmers Welfare Fund in March 2019 to provide financial assistance to eligible micro, small and medium agro-processors to acquire GS1 Barcodes.