Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the outset, I wish to inform the House that the African Network Information Centre, also known as AFRINIC, is a company limited by guarantee incorporated under the laws of Mauritius. AFRINIC is the designated Regional Internet Registry for the African continent which implies that is manages and issues all the IP addresses that are used in the African region. However, due to one of the Members, Cloud Innovation, there were a lot of points of contention that arose and unfortunately, allegedly, as well, many of the IP addresses that were meant for use in the African region were being used outside of Africa. That too, not for lawful but allegedly again, unlawful purposes and this has been ongoing for a long number of years. When we took government, we started addressing this problem because AFRINIC for Mauritius represents a very important symbol that puts Mauritius on the digital map of Africa. So, this institution could have based in any other African country but it is based in Mauritius and that is a matter of pride for us. With the involvement with AFRINIC of the previous government, we ran the risk of losing AFRINIC to other countries in Africa. But thanks to the effort of the hon. Attorney General – whom I thank very much – and also the hon. Prime Minister, we managed to find, to help and to support find a solution to AFRINIC. AFRINIC had been the object of a spate of litigation by Cloud Innovation Ltd, one of its own resource members, culminating into a receiver being appointed by the Supreme Court at the instance of Cloud Innovation Ltd. As a consequence, AFRINIC being placed in receivership and because it was placed in receivership, no new IP addresses could be issued between November 2024 and July 2025. AFRINIC was the object of a compulsory winding- up petition by Cloud Innovation Ltd and this was very dangerous for Africa and within the African digital space, it was known and it was perceived that the Judiciary of Mauritius was not handling the case properly. Now, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the state of affairs of AFRINIC has caused a lot of unease within the regional and international internet community, thereby undermining the

81 reputation of Mauritius as a jurisdiction internationally. To preserve the integrity thereof, a set of actions have been undertaken – I will not go to the details of those actions but I table the list of the actions. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir.

Table it. Yes, you have a supplementary question?

Could the hon. Minister please inform the House what is being done to bring back African IP addresses from Asia.

I would like to thank the hon. Member for this supplementary question. Now that the Board has been established, the Board will define the action plan with regard to recuperating the IP addresses of Africa that are being used outside. So, it will be up to the Board to act on this. Thank you.

The hon. Second Member for Rodrigues! BRAZIL – 30TH UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE – INITIATIVES